Naruto: Water
by SDI hyper
Summary: Takes place during 'Sands of time'.Reality is strangely changing with out warning or explanation but the only people who seem to notice it Sasuke and Konohamaru. Sasuke x Konohamaru, Kiba X Neji
1. Default Chapter

Chapter 1: Despair of an only child

'I can't be sad, I don't have time to be sad….'

Or at lest that's what Konohamaru kept telling himself, he found himself repeating it over and over. Every time he stopped working the death of his grandfather seemed to work itself in to his mind. Whether it was a one minute or an hour it came with out failure, and Konohamaru pushed it back.

Any sad feelings or something as a result of his grandfather's death was repressed by force and something to keep his mind on. The only thing that seemed sufficient was work, and their was plenty of it to be done. So he worked, and worked, and worked. Every chance he got, every second he could just so he could keep telling himself those words.

Work was working, he almost found himself happy when doing labor, something he could focus on and nothing else. And it felt good to be helping out.

Now mostly everyone was taking a break for lunch or so, Konohamaru on the other hand was still working. Now he was working on repairing a roof, his own to be exact. He was the only living relative of the Hokage, he of course had his own place. But there were countless holes in the roof from god knows what attack.

It was dangerous to stand on because there was barely a place to stand, It could fall through at any moment. Making Konohamaru very glad that his room was on the first floor not the second. Now that he looked at it, the house seemed too big for him. Just looking in to the empty home gave him a sense of loneliness, one person in this place.

'Stop thinking! Stop Thinking!' Konohamaru shouted to himself, lining a board over a few holes. This was especially hard for Konohamaru, it took work just getting the boards up to the roof, they were so long that they made him fall back just holding it over his head. It was imposable to keep himself balanced while lifting them on to the roof.

He wasn't complaining, the harder the work the longer it took and the more it occupied his mind. He current thoughts were trying to figure out an easier way to get the wood on to the roof.

With a hammer in his hand, he pounded a nail in to the wood, pushing it all the way in with a few more hits. Wiping his forehead he looked to the left at what he'd done so far, he got about 6 boards laid. Looking at the roof he had at lest 20 more to do, this would take awhile. When he turned to get more boards he found that his legs protested with the pulsing pain of worn out muscles. At first he was able to ignore it, but when he tried to move it quickly got worse.

He was forced to stop and rest, he sat down, stretching his legs and rubbing them with both hands. "Ow….all man." Konohamaru sighed, he stared down at his aching appendages, then he looked around at the town around him. That's when he started to think, and there was nothing he could do to stop himself from doing so.

'I can't think about this now, there's to much to do, it's not going to get done by itself…..' His eye lids dropped in to a saddened look and a small frown made his way across his lips. 'Why did he have to die….He was….the only person I really had. What am I going to do now?' Konohamaru sighed, looking down toward the street in front of his house, It seemed to be completely empty, everyone was either inside or elsewhere. Only one person wondered through the path.

Konohamaru laid back looking toward the sky. But his view was suddenly obstructed when the wood under him fell through. "WHAAAAA!" The board didn't break completely, it just caved in at the center. Konohamaru fell through in a very awkward position, his head was the first thing to break through the damaged wood under of the roof under the board.

Finally after what seemed like an eternity, Konohamaru hit the ground, landing painfully on the top his head and leaving an imprint on the ground. "Aww...oww." Weak groans escaped form Konohamaru as he held his head. He opened his eyes and found that he couldn't see strait, his eyes couldn't even focus right now.

That was the lest of his worries he didn't care about his eyes, it was the pain coming from his head, and the fact that somewhere a long the way a large chunk of wood had found it's way in and he didn't know how deep it went in. He couldn't even think to try and remove it, it hurt to much right now.

Sasuke had just gotten back from the forest surrounding the village where he was training for the good part of 5 hours. He did more thinking then actual training, and it was obvious that he couldn't live with his current strength. 'Damnit Naruto…' To think that Naruto could beat Gaara-and he couldn't.

Just the thought of it pushed him to train harder, too many questions run through his mind. Most of them falling into How. Like How did Naruto create all of those clones of himself? When did he build his Chakra to that level? And even when he reached his limit…How did he mange to draw more Chakra?

Even though he was completely frustrated, he needed to rest some time, why not get something to eat while he was at it?

"WHAAAAAAAA! Crash "

Sasuke looked toward the sound of the scream and the loud crash, it turned out he right in front of Konohamaru's house. And that voice was very familiar, after a few seconds he realized who it was.

"Aww…oww."

He could barely hear it but it sounded like something really could be wrong. Sasuke jumped on to the roof, treading carefully so that he didn't fall into anything. After a few seconds he made it to a hole much larger then the others, looking into it he could see Konohamaru on the ground.

He jumped in, knelling down next to the smaller boy, before he said anything he looked over him and the first thing his eyes were drawn to was the head he was holding. "Are you alright?" He asked, holding him down so that he didn't make it worse by moving around to much.

Konohamaru just groaned, reaching up to the large piece of wood and slowly lifting it. "No wait! You shouldn't-" Konohamaru didn't seem to hear a word Sasuke was saying, with one swift movement, Konohamaru pulled the piece out, and ended up making things worse.

For one with the object gone their to hold in the blood, and suddenly the pain was dulling away. Sasuke wrapped an arm around Konohamaru's back, lifting him up a little. He shook him seeing that he was losing conciseness, followed be a few light slaps to the face. "Hey! Stay with me…"

"I'm….really dizzy." Konohamaru said in an uneven voice, that's when he realized what he shouldn't have done.

"Damnit……" Sasuke scoped the boy in to his arms, it was clear he wasn't going to get much more out of him because he was completely out of it, he might as well have been unconscious.

Sasuke arrived quickly at the hospital and dropped Konohamaru off. He didn't stay for long though, as soon as he did that he went home for some very well earned rest.

Darkness. Silence.

Konohamaru's mind a waken in to s state of semi-conscious. He could think, but that was it. It was like his mind was completely disconnected from his body, he couldn't feel anything. He couldn't see or hear anything either, and it terrified him.

'Can someone hear me?'

He herd nothing but his own voice, he hated this feeling, it was horrible. He couldn't move, he couldn't hear, he couldn't see, he couldn't effect anything around him.

'Somebody? Help me!'

The thought came to his mind that he could possibly be like this for the rest of his life. Just thinking about it made the whole situation seem worse.

'….Please….'

He would have screamed if he could mange to do it, even in his mind his voice was weak. Mainly because he barely knew he was alive. The last thing he remembered was Sasuke, he came to his rescue.

'Sasuke? Sasuke! Help me!'

That was all he could do and he did it with every bit of strength, every part of himself he could gather.

It was strange, Sasuke expected Naruto to be at his favorite ramen spot, especially now that it was around lunch time. Whether he realized it or not, that's one of the main reasons he came here, it wasn't so much as hunger. It was that he wanted to see what Naruto up to, and now that he wasn't here he realized he didn't have an appetite at all.

Maybe he was training, that could have been it but knowing Naruto he would have stopped here to eat around now. His stomach was like a pit, he was never full. The only other thing he could think of was that he was at home.

It looked like it was back to work….but he wanted to check on Konohamaru first. He was worried about him and he could easily see what he was doing. Burying himself in work so that he wouldn't have to face the death of his Grandfather, hoping that he would be over this soon.

It was his own fault this happened to him. If he kept on like this it would only become worse and it'd take a lot longer to get over it. But there was still time, the fourth had only been buried yesterday.

It didn't take long to get back to the hospital from there. He looked at Konohamaru from the doorway, only able to see that the boy was sleeping. After a minute Sasuke didn't seem satisfied, the boy deserved more then that.

He walked over to the bed, taking seat next to him. That's when he could see something was wrong.

Konohamaru was squirming, but it was so light that it seemed he couldn't lift the weight of his own body parts. And he was crying in his sleep, his face was contorted in to a strained expression as if he was struggling against something.

Sasuke watched him closely, debating if he should try an do something. He was finding it increasingly harder to watch this.

In the end he didn't have to do anything, something happened on it's own.

In his eyes, the Sharingan started to pierce in to Konohamaru's mind, he was suddenly able to see what was happening.

'Sasuke! Sasuke! Where are you?'

He herd Konohamaru's voice calling out blindly to him. "Konohamaru?" Sasuke asked in confusion, he wasn't sure what was happening but he knew he could hear the boy.

'Sasuke! Help me! Please.' Konohamaru pleaded.

"What's wrong?"

'It horrible in here, I can't stand it, please help me.'

"In here? In your mind, how?"

'I don't know! I can't see, I can't hear, I can't feel anything…..I'm scared.'

Hearing that helpless, terrified voice calling to him. It stirred something inside of him, it made Sasuke determined to save Konohamaru. Nothing else mattered at the moment, he just had to pull him out of it some how.

'Sasuke? Are you there, don't leave me here….' Konohamaru could feel something now, he could feel Sasuke, he cling to it and Sasuke could feel him doing it. That feeling made him content knowing just his presence was helping the boy, he couldn't explain why though and he really didn't care.

"Don't be, I'm going to help you…I'm going to do something…." He couldn't do something unless he knew what was wrong with him. What could it be….?

Coma. Konohamaru was going in to a coma. It wasn't surprising considering the very bad concussion he suffered, not to mention the wood that went in to his head who knows how far.

If Sasuke had gotten in to his mind using Sharingan, maybe he could use it to pull Konohamaru out.

But he didn't know how, he hadn't particularly master his abilities. It didn't matter, he'd figure it out because he had to, he didn't give himself any other alternative.

'Ok….' Konohamaru said unsurely, he wasn't so scared anymore because Sasuke had made it this far, if anyone could figure out what to do it was him. And he thought hard about it, but while he was thinking time was apparently running out.

'Sasuke…?' Konohamaru's voice was weak, sleepy. He really was drifting out of what little conciseness he had, and when that happened there was nothing Sasuke could do.

"What?"

'I'm…getting really tired…'

"…….."

'Is this supposed to happen?'

"…Just hold on."

Time was up, he had to do something now or it would be a long sleep for Konohamaru. Desperation and anxiousness filled Sasuke, his mind was mentally pounding it self against the wall that seemed to block the solution on the other side. But the preverbal wall broke on it's own when Sasuke's Sharingan activated on it's own.

As stated before, he wasn't too skilled with the use of it. A big mental strain came on him when the Sharingan started to pull Konohamaru's mind from the abyss of unconsciousness. He grunted to himself, grabbing on to the side of the bed to keep himself from falling out of the chair.

It was like someone tied weights around his head and he was trying to lift him, only the weight was an amazingly painful headache.

'Sasuke…Your doing it, I can feel my body again.'

From there Konohamaru could help, it felt like he was in a deep sleep. His eye were open just enough to barley see, but he couldn't move. He struggled, trying to sit up, every second was waking him up more and more.

Finally getting up, he shook his head, almost falling back down on to the bed. He saw Sasuke sitting next to him and he sprang on to him, hugging him tightly. "Thank you! Thank you!"

Sasuke pushed on his shoulders, prying the boy off of him and sending him falling back down on to the bed. Konohamaru just laughed at the annoyed expression that came on to his face "You are so cool! How'd you do that?" Sasuke wasn't adverse to a few complements even though he didn't want to be bothered with them. But he didn't know exactly how he did it, so he ignored the question altogether, even though he would have done so anyway.

"….."

Sasuke put his hands in his pocket and walked away, "Your welcome." was all he said before walking out the door.

But Konohamaru wasn't going to give up that easy. "Hey wait up!" He shouted, looking around and finding his goggles on a nearby table and putting them on over the bandages around his head before running after him.


	2. Chapter 2: Loyalty

Chapter 2: Loyalty

"You should be resting right now." Sasuke said almost coldly, not bothering to look down at him.

"Rest! No way! There's to much to be done to be laying it bed." Konohamaru said with a small laugh. Sasuke looked down at him this time.

He recognized what was happening very well, he went through it himself. In many ways he was still was. Konohamaru was in to bad of a shape to be doing this now. Sasuke felt a small bit of concern for the boy, enough that he couldn't deny it or ignore it. He'd never grown so much emotion for some one.

It maybe it was because of all what had just happened, he felt a connection to him. He had activated his Sharingan to save Konohamaru even though he didn't know how. He would never admit it but it made Konohamaru special to him and he didn't want to see him hurt himself more.

He could always knock him out…But what happened before might happen again, and that was something he really didn't want to happen. The best he could do was make sure Konohamaru didn't exert himself or get hurt again. An accident like this and nearly going in to a coma would most defiantly kill his Stamina. And all it happening in the same day, the same hour shot all of his energy.

He was just _waiting_ to collapse and pass out.

'I am not a baby sitter.' Sasuke sighed, "Come on, let's get something to eat." the tone of his voice was even foreign to him.

"Really? Well…I am kinda hungry." A grin spread across his face as he ran toward the door.

"Hey wait." Sasuke sighed again and went after him, the last thing he needed to be doing is wasting even more of what little energy he had. Sasuke grabbed him by the shoulder. "Calm down, you shouldn't even be up." He was starting to got used to that tone of voice, it still seemed strange because never used it before. He didn't like the feeling of it.

Sasuke and Konohamaru walked threw the street, Konohamaru leading while Sasuke found himself lagging behind. Watching Konohamaru closely from behind, the wound on his head was still open for the most part. Too much sudden movement could cause bleeding, and losing blood from the head was never a good thing.

He was not surprised that Konohamaru lead him back to the same Ramen restaurant he had just came from. Konohamaru and Naruto had a taste Ramen, though Konohamaru's wasn't as strong. He was silently thankful when Konohamaru ordered Natto instead. He just got a drink.

"Sasuke? Aren't you hungry?" Konohamaru asked, picking up a few of the bean with his chopsticks.

"No." He said plainly before taking a sip of the tea.

Konohamaru smiled " I think you just don't wanna pay the bill."

Sasuke just smirked with amusement and let him think it.

"Don't worry about it, you can have some of mine."

Sasuke looked down at him about to protest when Konohamaru shoved the food in to his mouth and laughed at the expression that came on to his face. No one had ever seen Sasuke look so confused and surprised. He almost instinctively spit them out, but he didn't want to on the just cleaned floors.

So he chewed and forcefully swallowed the beans, Shooting a look toward Konohamaru. Only managing to make him laugh more. If done by anyone else, a swift reprimand would have followed, but some thing about that he found funny. No wonder Konohamaru laughed at him, he couldn't seem to keep a strait face. He managed not to laugh though.

"Like it huh? You can have some more." Konohamaru offered

"I don't like Natto and sweat stuff." Sasuke lifted the cup to his mouth, dinking more of the tea mainly to get the taste out of his mouth.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Konohamaru ran a hand through his spiky brown hair, stoping before eating more.

"I didn't have time because you were shoving it down my throat." Sasuke said angrily, Konohamaru laughed again, and Sasuke found himself with a small smile but stifled it before Konohamaru could see it, and failed in the end.

"Sorry about that." Konohamaru apologized half heartedly.

Both of them finished in a comfortable silence. Konohamaru reached into his pockets for his money when Sasuke stopped him. "I got it." He said plainly, tossing the money on the table and turned to leave.

"Thanks." Konohamaru said gratefully, steeping out of the shop and stretching his arm.

He headed back towards his house and Sasuke silently followed behind. The task of trailing the boy seemed less like an annoying chore and more like a part of a good day he was having.

He surely wasn't having a good day before, and neither was Konohamaru. The whole town seemed depressed and devoid today, in-fact the whole town was depressed and devoid. The only thing that filled the air was the sound of working, that or a hollow conversation. Not a laugh could be herd, not the two days after an attack were so many had died including the Hokage who was burred yesterday.

No one but them, who seemed to have the only non hollow happiness from something so simple. That was something Konohamaru desperately needed and Sasuke wasn't at all apposed to.

After a serous injury, Konohamaru was up and around 2 hours latter with child like resilience. He was happy to be with the person who saved him not once, but twice. He practically idolized Sasuke now, it was almost like having a second older brother. The first would have to undoubtedly have to be Naruto.

Konohamaru looked up at his house, then over at the boards still laying neatly to the side. "I better get to work." Konohamaru said, about to go to the roof when Sasuke stopped him.

"Hold on, you'll never fix this place like that." Sasuke said, walking inside.

"Huh? What do you mean?" Konohamaru asked, jumping on to the roof and finding Sasuke waiting for him on the second floor.

"Come here and let me show you." Sasuke said in his usual commanding voice. Konohamaru jumped in to the hole he made previously. But his shirt got caught on a protruding peace of broken wood.

He hung there for a sound, before his shirt ripped and he was sent falling to the ground. "Aaaaaa-huh?" Once again Sasuke was there to save him, catching him easily and setting him down on his feet.

"You must be getting really tired of saving me." Konohamaru said with a small blush, this was just not his lucky day.

Why was he so accident prone?

He was just off today.

"Look, the support beams are damaged, even if you do mange to keep cover the holes, it will just fall through every time it rains. Or a strong wind comes through" Sasuke told him, completely disregarding the fall that left Konohamaru shirtless.

"Oh….I guess I better get some stronger wood." Konohamaru didn't seem at all mad or disappointed, he just shrugged it off.

The roof needed 4 large beams, Konohamaru would never be able to carry one. And he'd only pass out if he strained himself trying, and of course he would try. "I'll get them." Sasuke said, he seemed to be feeling unusually generous right now. Konohamaru started to follow.

"That's alright, I don't need any help and it shouldn't take that long." Sasuke said.

"….What Am I supposed to do?" Konohamaru asked softly, just loud enough for Sasuke to hear. "I mean what can I do?" his voice was more normalized now.

"You don't have to do anything right now."

Konohamaru didn't want to be left alone with his thoughts, last time he took a break he ended up really depressed. And not to mention in the hospital. Sasuke new why he wanted to work so much and he refused to indulge in it. He didn't want to be any part responsible for an emotional scare that would result from this type of behavior. Especially not with Konohamaru.

Konohamaru nearly jumped when Sasuke returned. He'd taken a little longer just to give Konohamaru extra time by himself. Maybe if he just sat in sat down alone with himself he couldn't repress anything anymore, so he could start getting over this. But Konohamaru mange to avoid it completely, and Sasuke could only shake his head.

He dropped the 4 large beams that looked to be too long to carry by himself. Feeling a drop of small water hit his head from above, it was starting to rain, but lightly, not enough to be considered rain or even a drizzle. There was no way Konohamaru would stop for a little bit of water, so Sasuke ignored it also.

Getting the beams to the house was one thing, but putting them in place was another. Sasuke and Konohamaru had their work cut of for them, but Sasuke was sure to take most of the load conspicuously so that the boy didn't notice.

Konohamaru climbed on to the roof, sure to stand on a safe spot and tied a rope around a beam that needed to be replaced. Sasuke pulled on the rope, leaning his whole body into it, while Konohamaru jumped on it from above. Until they were finally able to pull it down. Then they began the tedious process of doing it again to the next beam.

Sasuke was thankful for the rain now, it was cooling him down at lest a little.

Finally they had removed all four Beams and had to go through the even harder process of putting the new ones in place. Sasuke climbed on to the roof with a beam and tried to put it in to place himself. It as just to long to mange on his own.

So he had to get Konohamaru to help, either that or the boy would try and do it on his own. Sasuke held one end and Konohamaru held the other, they slowly lowered it down into place. By then they both were hot and tired, and they sill had more work to do. Sasuke went back down to get the second beam while Konohamaru nailed the first in place.

"Huh?" Looking up from inside the house, he could see Konohamaru was acting strangely. His eyes seemed unfocused and he was breathing hard. He put the hammer down, holding his head, Sasuke knew something was definitely wrong. The rain was starting to come down harder now, the small spray turning into thick droplets.

"Uaah…" Konohamaru started to feel dizzy as he had before, he sat back so that he wouldn't fall again. In a second Sasuke was by his side, they were working harder then he realized, what seemed to fly by for him had been a long and hard 2 hours for Konohamaru. He'd finally pushed himself to the point of exhaustion and the strain had become to great.

"Sa-Sas-" Konohamaru's words slurred as he lost consciousness.

He awoke again with out really awaking , Konohamaru found himself in almost the same situation as before. His eye were open slightly and he could see a little, but he couldn't seem to move his body. He really wished that Sasuke was nearby, he needed something to wake himself up.

He tried moving, pushing his body as far as he could but only just barely managing to get his head off the pillow before coming back down. He lay there, paralyzed by sleep and only found the strength to move when something shook the bed and woke him. It was Sasuke sitting on the edge of the bed, the reason was unknown, by the time Konohamaru sat up Sasuke was already on his feet.

"Sasuke? What happened?" Konohamaru asked, noting a strange feeling that was quickly retreating.

"You passed out while working. I told you not to over do it." Sasuke's voice was harsh and cold, it almost made Konohamaru jump.

When Sasuke spoke he finally realized what that feeling was. It was like his mind body and soul were wide open, and more importantly he felt Sasuke. Something unmistakably him that Konohamaru was coming to learn very well. Sasuke had used Sharingan to check up on him, and Konohamaru suddenly found Sasuke's cold, chastening tone to be hollow and hid worry and concern. He was starting to be able to read Sasuke, and he liked the feeling.

"Sorry, I guess…I guess I didn't realize it until it happened." Konohamaru rubbed his head, he still found himself without his shirt and now he was only in his boxers. He was grateful to be out of the clothing, he was hot and found himself sweating under the covers. Quickly striping them off.

Sasuke looked back at him, glancing at the boy laying almost naked on the bed, his skin had a soft sheen from the sweat. He thought nothing of it. "You shouldn't be doing work. Stay here and rest." Sasuke's voice was completely commanding now, Konohamaru couldn't help but listen.

"….No wait! I have to work on my house before it starts raining" Konohamaru protested, happy with his response.

Sasuke didn't bother to look at him, "Rest." he replied, walking out of the door.

"Wait!" Konohamaru nearly shouted, realizing how desecrate he sounded. That was enough to make Sasuke stop outside the doorway.

"I…I….-" Konohamaru struggled to get the words out, Sasuke turned and looked at him questioningly. He already knew what was wrong with the boy, he seemed able to do that now, chalk it up to the Sharingan or at lest that's what he thought. With Sasuke looking at him he found it easier "-I don't want to be alone ." Konohamaru held his held down and talked shyly.

Sasuke looked at him for a minute before walking over and sitting down on the edge of the bed. "Why?" He already new the answer, he was just curious to what he would say.

"I don't know…I just can't stand being by my self anymore…and I'm…." This time Sasuke was clueless to what he would say. "I'm afraid to go to sleep." Konohamaru said it even more shyly then before.

"Why?" Sasuke wished he hadn't asked as soon as the word slipped from his mouth. But as uncomfortable it made it, Konohamaru expected the question.

"I… might end up like I was before. I couldn't see, I couldn't hear, I couldn't feel anything. It was horrible." Konohamaru held a steady gaze downward. Sasuke could tell that he really was afraid, and why not, he wasn't even supposed to be up and he already passed out once today.

Sasuke laid back across the bed, letting his head hang loosely off of the other end. Konohamaru didn't say any thing, he was too grateful that this was happening. It must have been hard for Sasuke who didn't usually act like this for people.

They laid silently for hours, Sasuke comfortably with his hands behind his head and his eyes closed and Konohamaru doing everything he could to avoid falling asleep. Sasuke said nothing, knowing that it would happen eventually.

In his half sleep state, Konohamaru shifted and turned in the bed. Unable to get comfortable because of how hot he was, he rolled from time to time. Somehow during the course of the night he ended up next to Sasuke. Mindlessly lifting his head to his chest and curling up against him. Despite the heat he seemed perfectly comfortable.

"Hey." Sasuke growled, opening his eyes and looking down at the boy. He couldn't hold himself back any longer, as soon as he touched Sasuke he instantly relaxed. And was already asleep. Sasuke couldn't find the hart to push him away, and by the time he realized what he was doing he found one arm wrapped around Konohamaru with his fingers gently running through the spiky brown hair.

Konohamaru seemed to like it though, a large sheepish grin coming across his face in his sleep as he cuddled closer. Sasuke couldn't help but smile, feeling that strange connection he had with the boy when he first used the Sharingan to pull him from the coma. 'Konohamaru.'

'Sasuke.'

When he herd Konohamaru's voice he realized that he was using the Sharingan to get inside the boys mind. He wasn't exactly sure how to stop it ' I like you Sasuke, your always there for me. I can always feel you….' Sasuke was silent listening to Konohamaru's stray thoughts in sleep.

'I like that feeling.'

Sasuke didn't think about it until he herd that, he'd never say it but he liked I to. Being connected with someone, it always left him feeling that his mind, heart, and soul were wide open to the boy. 'You like it too, I can feel it.' Konohamaru said happily, he was sleep but his mind was fully aware.

'You can feel it?' Sasuke asked questioningly you.

'Yeah, I can feel you there, somewhere.'


	3. Chapter 3: Changes

Chapter 3: Changes

Konohamaru shifted in the bed realizing that the one he was curl up angst the night before wasn't there anymore. It took his mind a second to realize it, but when he did he instantly opened his eye and shot up. Looking around the room, sub-consciously making sure that he wasn't dreaming. His sudden moment caught up with him and Konohamaru lifted his hands to his head.

"OWWW!" He cried out, almost yelling as a sharp pain ran though is head, he forgot about his injury and though it had only been a day he was already getting annoyed at it. His skull had been pierced by the wooden stake, and he'd left before he could have the second operation to cover the hole. He almost regretted it….almost. He'd had a good day yesterday, and the pain seemed worth it.

Staying as still as he possibly could until the pain faded, Konohamaru finally climbed off the bed. Finding his pants neatly folded on a nearby dresser. The boy sleepy treaded out of the room, hearing the sound of rushing water from the bathroom, 'Sasuke must be taking a shower.'

With a shrug, Konohamaru thought about looking around, but didn't feel like it much. He was too tired to do so, it was only about 5 in the morning. from the window he could see the sun slowly starting to creep up over the horizon. Looking back toward the bed he found that he still had the same fear of sleeping that he had before, though he had no problem or fear last night.

Sasuke reached out, feeling around for a towel outside of shower. After a few empty handed attempts he finally felt one on the rack nearby, padding himself dry before wrapping it around himself and walking out of the bathroom.

He found Konohamaru missing from the bed room when he returned. 'Huh?', Sasuke got dressed, contemplating where the boy could have went. Hopefully not back to work on his house, if he wasn't there to limit what he tried to do. There was no doubt that it would be a repeat of yesterday.

"Hmm…" It made him think, Konohamaru really should go back to the hospital. He knew that they had to close the wound on his head, he wasn't sure if that type of injury would heal. At the most he knew it would take a long while.

His thoughts were interrupted when he heard a sound on the roof, 'Konohamaru.' He thought. He finished getting dressed and went outside, jumping on to the roof and not surprised to see Konohamaru.

He was laying with his hands behind his head watching the sunrise. Sasuke quietly walked over and sat down next to him, Konohamaru glanced at him then turned back to the view. Watching the sun turn the sky orange and the bottom of the clouds a light red. Behind them stars and the darkness of night still controlled half of the sky, the moon could still be seen setting over the opposite horizon.

Konohamaru opened his eyes again, not realizing that he'd fallen asleep again. With a small yawn he stretched his arms, noticing that his head was on Sasuke's chest and Sasuke was sleeping with his arm wrapped around him.

"Sasuke, wake up. We have to get to work before it rains again." Konohamaru shook his head to help wake him up. Sasuke opened his eyes, blinking as he looked down at Konohamaru who was smiling back at him.

Konohamaru sat up, lifting himself off of Sasuke who silently pulled himself to his feet. With a small agreeing grunt, Sasuke gave a small stretch, he looked down hearing his stomach growl loudly, Konohamaru looked at him a laughed. He wrapped his arm around Sasuke's waist and gently rubbed his stomach. "Let's go eat first."

He stopped when he herd his own stomach growling, a blush spread across his face and he rubbed his head. "What do you want to eat?" Sasuke asked.

"Why am I not surprised." Sasuke moaned, sitting at Ichiraku in the same seats they had lunch the day before.

"Don't tell me your going to order-"

"I wanna big bowl of Raman!" Konohamaru shouted, getting a sigh from Sasuke. Konohamaru was dressed in some of Sasuke's old clothing, at first it was just his blue shirt because Konohamaru didn't have one. But he thought he looked better if he took the white shorts that came along with it.

Sasuke didn't have an appetite nearly that big "Just rice."

"Huh? That's it?" Konohamaru asked, looking up at Sasuke then down at his stomach.

"I don't need that much." He replied stoically, Konohamaru looked down hungrily at his Bowl of Raman then up a Sasuke again. Who didn't notice him, or the smirk.

But he decided not to act on what he was thinking about, at lest not yet. Some how he found the thought of him feeding Sasuke more appealing then eating, Not to say Sasuke wasn't expecting Konohamaru to try and do just that, it had to be coming sooner or later. He knew Konohamaru couldn't resist doing it twice.

As soon as he was halfway finished his rice he felt the taste of surprisingly good Raman. Somehow he wasn't expecting it, instinctively he picked up some of the rice with his chopsticks and shoved it into Konohamaru's mouth.

Konohamaru laughed, picking up more of the noodles and aiming for Sasuke's mouth. He opened his own Mouth, awaiting the arrival of more rice before feeding more of the noodles to a passive Sasuke. He was enjoying this more then he intended to let on.

By the time they were finished, two more bowls of Raman were gone and both of them where completely full. Sasuke paid the bill and the two headed towards Konohamaru's house in a comfortable silence. They had some how grown attached to each other, Sasuke was trying to protect him and keep him out of situations too dangerous. And Konohamaru was about as loyal as anyone could get.

Sasuke used a rope thrown over the main support beam to pull the replacement beam up to the ceiling. From there it was Konohamaru's job to push it into place, holding one edge of the wood he eased it into the area where it needed to go. It wasn't easy though, the boy had to stretch his whole body outward to push it into place.

Sasuke tied the rope and head up to the roof wile Konohamaru held the hanging beam in place. Sasuke began to nail one side down while Konohamaru did the other side, and finally when it was secure Sasuke walked to the center of the beam. Adding more weight to his steeps until he reached the rope and untied it.

There was only one left when the two began to repeat the process for the final time. Sasuke tied the across the beam and threw the other half over the main support beam. Going about the increasingly hard process of pulling the beam up. "Sasuke did you hear that?" Konohamaru asked, still waiting for the unaligned beam to reach him.

"Hear what?" Sasuke asked.

"Hmmm….It must have been nothing." Konohamaru said dismissingly, watching as the beam finally got up to him. He reached out and just barely grabbed the beam with one hand. He almost fell when the same sound came again unexpectedly.

"That's it, that's the sound." Konohamaru said, it was the sound of metal and wood buckling. It was coming from all sides below them. They couldn't just drop what they were doing to see what it was. With a new sense of haste, Konohamaru pull the beam in to place while Sasuke tied the rope and came up to the roof. The sound came again, even louder then before.

Both of them moved faster, hurrying to nail down the beam and not really checking to see if was completely secure before they went to investigate the sound. The it was making Sasuke uneasy was because it was under them, and it kept getting louder…and louder…and louder. "It's coming from the basement…." Konohamaru said, treading carefully though the first floor.

"Wait….is that water?" Sasuke asked, hearing the familiar sound as they drew closer to the stairway into the basement. That same buckling sound came again, only deafeningly loud now, Konohamaru covered his ears. Just before the lights went out, leaving on the light from outside. Sasuke's eyes went wide as he realized what was happening, he grabbed Konohamaru's hand and starting running for the door.

Before he could take a step, the whole floor fell through at once. The falling slowed almost as fast as it started when the fallen floor landed in water from the basement, but it was quickly sinking. "Wha-Where did all this water come from!" Konohamaru shouted, by the time he said it, floor had fallen enough so that that water was up to his knees. Sasuke continued though the water at a slowed pace from the resistance.

In 5 steeps the water was up to Konohamaru's chest. Sasuke instinctively pick him, carrying him on his back before jumping out of the water and springing toward the door. "Sasuke!" Konohamaru shouted desperately, the grip of his arms around the other boy's neck tightened to make sure he listened.

"The ceiling's coming down!"

Sasuke looked up and saw the walls had major fractures that grew from under the water. He had a second to react, though he wasn't sure what his reaction would be. "Sasuke! Move back!" Konohamaru yelled in his ear being intentionally forceful. Sasuke landed in the water now up to his stomach, taking a steep back just as the ceiling finally came down on them.

Sasuke clinched his eyes tightly, expecting to be smashed or at lest. Instead it stop just above his head, this was one spot of the ceiling that was higher then the others. "Konohamaru, hold your breath." Sasuke said, commandingly. Konohamaru took a deep breath as Sasuke dived under the dark waters, swimming in the direction of the door.

He constantly dived deeper to stay below the ceiling but over the floor. It became apparent that he would have to blast his way though. He held his arm out, pressing his other hand against the extended one. "Chidori!" Sasuke shouted, or at lest tried to, it only came out as a muffled and distorted sound.

It was effective none the less, his hand began to glow with a energy that discharged like lighting as he charged it. The water became suddenly illuminated and Konohamaru could see what used be the second floor being broken apart and pulled seemingly in to the floor. There were two holes in the ground, one that was creating this water and another that was pulling some of it back, but it as taking in to much wood and debris to make much of a difference in the water level.

Sasuke just happened to be drifting toward the one that was pulling everything down. It was starting to pull him and he didn't even notice it. Konohamaru gave him a soft squeeze to get his attention, Sasuke looked back and Konohamaru pointed to the hole that was pulling them down. But it was too late by then, they were halfway down the narrow passage.

Sasuke scrambled ineffectively against the current, all he could do was used the Chidori to destroy the wood that surrounded them. It only made the current's pull stronger, the two were tossed and tumbled through the path, the only option to hold on.

Sasuke felt the wetness around him fade and his body involuntarily took a breath, thankful find that he was breathing air. Opening his eyes he was right outside of Konohamaru's house, which had sunk completely. In fact the ground under it had broke apart and fell through. Leaving only a short canyon filled with water.

The first thing he did was look back to see if Konohamaru was still there, not only was he there he had a near vice grip around Sasuke's waist. "Sasuke….Konoha…it's gone…" Konohamaru said in a terrified voice, letting go of Sasuke and standing to his feet.

The village was in fact gone, nothing more then very few patches of land that stood above the jagged cliffs and waters. Konoha had been completely destroyed by some unknown force, and they narrowly survived on a small patch of land, one of few.

Konohamaru stood in a daze, unable to believe what he was seeing. He looked down when he herd something surface from the water at his feet. It was a rock, a black stone with the same seal Naruto had on his stomach. It was stone used to concentrate Chakra, the Hokage who sealed the nine-tails used this stone to help him do it. It was concentration stone in the boy's hand still contained a strong amount of Chakra from the nine-tails, which had passed through the stone when being sealed, and from the Hokage who sealed the nine-tails. He had poured every last ounce of his Chakra in to it.

"This is all that's left." Konohamaru clinched the stone tightly, tears silently running down his face before the boy broke out into loud sobs, hugging Sasuke's waist tightly. Sasuke knelt down and wrapped his arms around him. He really couldn't say anything to him, Village had just been destroyed, and neither of them knew how.

Sasuke looked down into the sad brown eyes, suddenly feeling his Sharingan activating on it's own. "Sasuke….what's going on?" Konohamaru asked, as everything around them became a blinding white light and there vision of each other started to fade.

"I don't... know…." Sasuke couldn't explain the feeling, but it felt like everything was changing.

Konohamaru held on to him tightly, afraid to let go, afraid that if he did Sasuke would be gone. Sasuke held on to him firmly, some where in his mind he had the same fear, even if he didn't realize why he found himself holding the boy so tightly.

The light cleared away and the found themselves in the same place as the were before, only thing seemed to be back to normal. They were still in the center of town where the water had carried them and it seemed just as it always had been. " Was….was that real?" Konohamaru asked, still in Sasuke's arms.

It had to have been, there clothes were still wet and Konohamaru still had the stone in his hand. But their thoughts were broken up when they herd a loud and familiar voice in front of them.

"Are you alright Gaara" Naruto asked, They watched as Gaara fell to his knees, panting heavily.

"Just tired." He said, getting to his feet again, he looked more then tired.

Sasuke and Konohamaru watched as Naruto led him to Shikamaru's house nearby attempted to go unnoticed.

Now the focus was less on what had just happen, and more on what was happening now. And Sasuke wanted some answers. "Are you ok?" He asked, getting a nod from Konohamaru as the boy wiped the tears from his face as quickly as he could.

Sasuke and Konohamaru headed to Naruto's place before he got there. Konohamaru had to say the look on Naruto's face when he opened the door and found them standing there was priceless. "Sasuke! What are you doing here?" Naruto asked nervously.

Sasuke ignored the question "What is _he_ doing here?"

Naruto walked in, Gaara following behind him. "I came looking for him. I didn't come to start anything." Gaara said plainly.

Sasuke leaned over the table, about to say something when Naruto came in-between the two. "Sasuke! He's telling the truth. Calm down already."

Sasuke looked at Naruto, then glared at Gaara, who looked away with out concern. "It was an order."

"What?"

"I it was an order for the Sand to attack this place. I just recently found out that Orochimaru killed the Kazekage my father and took his place. That's why we attacked Konoha, and that's why I did what I did."

Sasuke froze for a moment, finally he sat back down and folded his arms. Looking over at Konohamaru, who had fallen asleep in his chair. Shifted between the two, seeing that the tension was gone, but Sasuke still had one more question.

Konohamaru managed to pull himself out of the light sleep, he wanted to stay awake for this.

"Today…something strange happened. I wanted to know if you two saw it or not."

"Saw what?" Naruto asked.

Sasuke explained what happened to both of them, and could tell they knew something by the look they gave each other. They had the proof to show that it really happened, what ever it had been. "We may have had something to do with it." Gaara told him, still trying to piece together what happened to Sasuke and what they had just been through, there was an obvious connection.

"How?"

Naruto and Gaara explained about Gaara's time control, and the events that they had caused. The last one was the one of interest, Gaara, Shikamaru and Naruto had invertedly caused the destruction of Konoha. Sasuke and Konohamaru had witnessed it, and some how the power of his Sharingan allowed both of them to see and go through the changes.

By the end of all of it, Konohamaru couldn't keep his eyes open. He finally fell asleep, his head landing on Sasuke's lap.

With a sigh, Sasuke picked up the boy.


	4. Chapter 4: Forever in your eyes

Chapter 4: Forever in your eyes

"Sorry about that, I guess I just needed a nap or something." Konohamaru said, he'd awaken about halfway through the trip, but Sasuke still had him in his arms. Konohamaru didn't object to it, he just laid back in Sasuke's arms and watched the world roll past him. No other thoughts entered his mind, not Gaara and Naruto, not the image of a destroyed Konoha, not even the death of his Grandfather.

There were thick gray clouds scattered about the sky, the wind was picking up slightly and the moisture in the air could practically be felt. It would rain soon…

Konohamaru was so busy looking up that he didn't notice they had arrived until Sasuke set him down on the roof. "You know, I'm usually a lot better on short trips." Konohamaru said, rubbing the back of his head. Sasuke only smirked, looking down at the boy.

Konohamaru couldn't resist the urge to hug him after an extremely trying day, throwing his arms around a willing Sasuke and pressing his head against his stomach. Konohamaru didn't know what he would have done if Sasuke hadn't been there.

Konohamaru looked up at him with his usual smile, but his expression suddenly became confused. "?" Sasuke looked down at him questioningly, before he could asked anything his mind realized how close he'd gotten when he looked down. He was only inches or so from the boy.

With a quick, deep breath Konohamaru closed his eyes filled the gap. Kissing Sasuke softly, his tongue slipping in to Sasuke's mouth while he was still surprised. Sasuke kissed back, his tongue roaming Konohamaru's mouth. Konohamaru reach up, wrapping his arms around Sasuke's neck and pulling Sasuke down a little more.

After a few minutes, both of them pulled back, Konohamaru pleasantly happy while Sasuke was unusually disoriented. "Sasuke?"

"No wait! This can't happen…." He said hastily.

"Huh?….But We-"

"I'm sorry I can't do this…not now."

Sasuke started heading towards his door, or at lest he thought his was. "Wrong way." Konohamaru told an extremely unnerved Sasuke, letting his hands rest behind his head.

"Oh I-." Sasuke turned around, walking toward the door.

"Sasuke. I know there's something between us. Come on, I'm really, really hot…I need this." Konohamaru said, Only to see Sasuke was gone and hear a door close abruptly. His hart felt like it was about to burst out of his chest, his body felt amazingly warm, extremely hot in his pants where he was already hard. Konohamaru could only smile at the whole situation and at himself.

He wasn't exactly sure what he wanted, but he knew Sasuke knew and only he could give it to him. Plus this was his first time being aroused so he was new at this. Now all he wanted to do was go home and Sleep….so that nothing would ruin how he was feeling right now.

Sasuke quickly stripped out of his clothing, heading strait for the shower. What had just happened didn't surprise him, there was no way he couldn't say he didn't like it. Like wasn't nearly a strong enough word, it was amazing.

But as much as he liked it, there was no way he could allow himself to go any farther. He didn't realize just how much he wanted to until he found himself taking cold shower. Which proved to be more painful then he expected, but if it would help he was willing to do it.

The only think it didn't effect was his mind. The heat that surged through him, the feel of Konohamaru and feeling his erection pressing against his leg. That moment played over and over unwillingly, it was making him hot again. "Damnit!"

Konohamaru headed back to his house as quickly as he could, to avoid any embarrassing situations. When he returned he found the support beams had already been replaced, just as they had before Naruto, Shikamaru and Gaara caused that strange incident. Konohamaru entered threw the roof, finding it easier then the door.

He wanted to go check the basement but didn't much feel like it. He instead jumped down a laid on the floor, staring up at the clouds through the nearly unobstructed view. A the weak sound of thunder rolled through the sky, just as a light rain started to fall. Konohamaru didn't care though, he couldn't get his mind off of Sasuke.

Which really was normal because he'd been thinking about him for the past two days. Only this time something changed, it defiantly wasn't the feeling he had before. He just wanted to be with Sasuke, to up in to his eyes. He loved those eyes, the eyes that look in to his mind and soul. He could see forever in those eyes.

Those eyes saved him more then once.

"Sasuke!" Konohamaru said annoyedly, he knew he was alone, but he didn't feel it. He did feel that connection though, that strange connection he got with Sasuke when that Sharingan was used. He felt it now, strong as ever, It offered some comfort for him, enough to let him fall asleep. 'Sasuke…'

Sasuke was pleased with himself for starting to be able to control his Stage 2 Sharingan. He was even happier about it now that it was working with his will. The only thing that was on his mind was Konohamaru, how things had developed with him over the last two days. Particularly last night and this morning.

He missed it already, the way Konohamaru always found his way over to him no matter which way he moved and shifted. His missed that contact, just having Konohamaru with him, the feeling that he was keeping him safe. He loved protecting Konohamaru, no matter how much the boy faced potential injury, he never grew tired of it. He also loved how Konohamaru looked at him.

That was what he wanted right now, and the Sharingan started working on it's own. Somehow he felt connected to Konohamaru, he wasn't sure how it happened but he didn't care enough to question it. 'Konohamaru……'

He had to go see him tomorrow, even if it would require a bit of restraint. There was no way he could let this end, this wasn't all about sex drive.

Sasuke walked slowly through the streets toward Konohamaru's house, he was fairly sure the boy would be here. The sky had plenty of gray clouds patched around a white sky, it was still raining, not too hard but not lightly either. He honestly hoped that Konohamaru wouldn't be working in this weather, the last thing he needed was a cold along with a hole in his head.

He was happy that he didn't find Konohamaru on the roof. Sasuke leapt to the top of the house, landing on one of the support beams, silently looking inside. Konohamaru was sitting in the corner of the room, if he was trying to avoid the rain he wasn't doing a good job. The boy was back in his usual attire, a yellow shirt with the leaf insignia in red across the center. Light green pants along with a long blue scarf that was larger then he was.

"Why are you sitting in the rain?"

Konohamaru looked up when he herd the familiar voice. "Sasuke." Konohamaru greeted, Sasuke moved across the beams to the last one near the wall above Konohamaru. More rain fell here but neither of them noticed, or cared. The rain seemed to be a natural part of the situation, and though it was raining, it was still warm outside.

Sasuke jumped down, landing right in front of the boy. "I was just waiting for you." Konohamaru said, looking up with a small smile on his face.

"Is that so." Sasuke sat down on the ground, crossing his legs. Konohamaru laid his head on Sasuke's shoulder.

"Sasuke…I'm not sure what I'm feeling, but I know I yesterday felt right. I love you." Konohamaru didn't look up, not wanting to see Sasuke's reaction.

"I'm not so sure, it's probably not what you think it is." Sasuke said plainly. Konohamaru seemed very passionate and determined on this subject, it was a sensitive spot. The boy jumped up from the ground, standing directly in front of Sasuke.

"I know what I'm feeling, I may be younger but-"

"That's exactly why you wouldn't know."

Konohamaru was shouting now, "If it isn't love, why did it feel so bad when you ran away yesterday? Why was I so sad when I was sleeping alone last night? Why couldn't I stop thinking about you? How come….I still fee like your inside my head like before… Why dose it hurt when I'm alone I a don't feel it?"

Sasuke looked up at him somewhat surprised at how strongly he stood behind what he felt. Konohamaru's arm was pressed against the wall next to Sasuke's head, and his face was much closer to the other boy then he realized. "Hn." Sasuke gave a small acknowledging nod, this time he was the one to kiss Konohamaru.

It felt better this time then it did last night.

Konohamaru had move sometime during the kiss and was sitting on Sasuke's lap. Again he could feel Konohamaru's erection though his pants, pressing against his stomach. He couldn't hold back after that.

Sasuke pulled his shorts down to his knees, reviling his own erection, pressing against Konohamaru's back.

Konohamaru was almost surprised when Sasuke lifting him up on two his feet, pulling off his pants and letting the smaller erection free. He didn't know exactly what Sasuke was planning, but he was a willing student, he didn't care what happened next, he just needed some type of contact.

Sasuke ran his hand through Konohamaru's hair, pulling him into another kiss and giving Konohamaru what he wanted. But he needed more, the boy moaned pleadingly in to the kiss, slipping his hands under Sasuke's shirt and pressing them against his chest. Once again their eye met, bringing some reasoning back in to Sasuke's mind. "Sure about this?" He asked, pulling back from the kiss just enough to talk.

"Uh-huh." Konohamaru said, whipping away some off the water from his eyes with his arm before kissing Sasuke again. Sasuke only smirked, slouching down somewhat and only his head and shoulders leaned against the wall and he was basically flat. With Sasuke's hand on his waist, Konohamaru willingly let the older boy guide him. He moaned when felt the head of his cock, wet with rain and pre-cum pressing against his entrance.

Konohamaru leaned back instinctively, making Sasuke's cock enter him. "Ahhh…Uh.." Konohamaru groan at the sudden feeling, biting back the small pain that came with the stretching and moaning with the pleasure. Sasuke drove his length upward in to Konohamaru with a slow pace, pulling him down to meet his thrusts.

Everything seemed right at that moment, like everything that happened in Konohamaru's life was leading up to this. Konohamaru planted his hands against Sasuke's stomach for support and clinched his eyes closed. "Sasuke…more.." Konohamaru said in-between breaths, Sasuke looked at Konohamaru, as if trying to determine if he could handle it or not. He saw a small smile on his otherwise clinched face and couldn't help but give him what he wanted.

With a more firm grip on him, Sasuke began to thrust in to the boy harder, forcing a loud gasp from the boy. "Sas-Sasuke!" Konohamaru moan, practically shouted when he came, spilling his on to Sasuke's waist and stomach. The warm liquid was quickly washed away by the rain.

Konohamaru fell on to Sasuke's chest, his breath heavy and his hart pounding. Sasuke wrapped his arms around the boy, continuing his thrusts. Soft moans escaped from Konohamaru as his burred his face in to Sasuke, hugging him tightly as the cock moving inside of him drew another loud moan.

Sasuke felt his body being pushed closer and closer to it's limit with each thrust. His hold on Konohamaru became a little tighter, he stifled any sound that tried to pass through his lips. Cum spurted our of his cock in to the boy, spilling down on to his waist, mixing with the rain rinsing away.

"Sasuke?"

"Huh?"

"I really don't wanna move right now."

Sasuke resisted the urged to laugh. "You don't have to."

With a smile he looked up at Sasuke, staring in to his eyes. "Are you doing that thing right now."

"What thing?"

"You know, that thing you did when you were inside my head. It's really cool."

"No, why?" What he really should have said was "I don't know".

"No reason. It just kinda feels like it."

"..Hmm…."

Konohamaru rested his head on Sasuke's chest, closing his eyes. "You think what happened to day is going to happen again?" He asked,

"I'm not sure…"

"I'll be ready-next time." Konohamaru's voice started to trail off as he got close to sleep.

"……."

"G'night…"

Sasuke lent down and kissed him on his forehead, didn't say to much verbally. It still felt a little awkward saying affectionate or cheering things…well little wasn't a large enough word, it felt very awkward and out of character for him. But just about everything he couldn't say out loud, he could say physically, at lest with Konohamaru he could.


	5. Chapter 5: The heat is on

Chapter 5: The heat is on

Konohamaru and Sasuke were awaken the next morning by a loud explosion, they could feel a strong rush of air from the created shockwave, it was the last thing needed to finish drying their clothing. "What was that?" Konohamaru mumbled sleepily, his mind quickly coming back in to conciseness.

Sasuke lifted Konohamaru off of him and jumped up to one of the support beams above them. He could see the end of a large explosion that had gone off a few blocks from where they were. Looking around he could see smaller fires in the surrounding buildings and other homes. "What's happening?"

A fully dressed Konohamaru climbed up with him, amazed to see the damage that had been caused and that he'd slept through all of it. "How?" Konohamaru was the first one down in to the street, running toward any direction he thought could find out what was going on.

He froze when he came to a nearby house, a large hole was created in the side giving him an clear view of what was happening inside. A woman in side was completely mauled, the actual wounds were hidden by the remains of her clothing and copious amounts of blood. But he could see that her stomach and torso had been ripped open, the woman could only let out a weakened cry with her last breath. Whatever had done this was still there, he could hear it biting and chewing, but it's body was concealed by the darkness in the room, except for a pair of downcast glowing red eyes.

A fire flared up behind it, revealing a brown fox with three tails. "Sas-Sasuke!" Konohamaru nearly screamed taking a step back, the fox's ear's twitched and it looked up, growling with blood dripping from it's mouth. Konohamaru pulled out a Kunai fearfully, the fox jumped at him, it's speed was much quicker then he had expected. It easy caught him off guard and he couldn't move fast enough, but his body was pushed out of the way by Sasuke.

When Konohamaru looked up, Sasuke was holding off the fox with a knife in it's mouth and hand pushing it back from it's throat. The fox snarled and bit down on the metal, shattering it between it's teeth. Sasuke lifted his knee into it's stomach then kicked it back before it had a chance to do the same to him. "What is that thing?" Konohamaru asked, running over to him.

"No! Stay back!" Sasuke shouted, Konohamaru would be an easy target for it.

"Uh….Too late." Konohamaru turned around and came face to face with another almost exactly identical fox, Only it had a large piece of metal in one eye. "

Damnit!" Sasuke did a backflip kicking the fox in it's chin, then springing into the air, dropping his heel down on it's head. It was knocked too the ground but immediately snapped back up with it's mouth open. Sasuke just narrowly managed to pull his leg back in time, it was clear he wouldn't be able to help Konohamaru.

"Try to stay in it's blind spot." Was the only advice Sasuke could offer, if one eye was injured it would be a little more focused on that then Konohamaru, hopefully. The half blind fox charged at him, Konohamaru immediately moved too the left where the injured was sided. But the fox was still fast, to fast for him to get anywhere to far. Konohamaru fell back to the ground just as the fox reached him, lifting his foot and kicking it in the chest. Using it's own momentum against itself and tossing it on it's back a few feet ahead.

Konohamaru wasn't completely useless.

Sasuke was almost so distracted watching Konohamaru that the fox almost pinned him down to the ground. Almost. In the process of falling Sasuke delivered a sharp punch to it's jaw and swift kick to It's body. But that still didn't detoured the wolf, it still managed to knock him to the ground, pinning him down by standing on his chest. It went for his face, trying to bite him but he lifted it's arm and pushed back against it's neck. He found himself looking into it's open mouth which was steadily coming closer, this fox was much stronger then it appeared for it's size.

He found relief a sudden from the losing battle of strength, Konohamaru came from the side and rammed into it, knocking it off and sending it tumbling along with himself a few feet away. Konohamaru jumped on top of it while it was still on it's back, with a Kunai in his hand he plunged his fist in to it's chest, sending a splatter of blood over his arms. Weakened but not dead, the fox snapped at his face with it's mouth opened wide. Konohamaru flinched, driving the knife oddly into it's skull and finishing it off.

An expression of immediate disgust came on his face when he realized what he'd just done. The feeling and look became more intense when he saw the blood covering him.

Sasuke climbed to his feet, crouching down and avoiding the half blind fox that lunged at him. With another Kunai he did an uppercut while it was still above him, driving the knife into the area under it's chin, through the mouth and in to it's head. With out hesitation he pulled the blade from the falling creature and ran over to a seemingly dazed Konohamaru who was watching him.

He could tell that the boy wasn't partial to the act of killing, and he didn't like the sight or feel of blood on him, especially if it wasn't his own. Konohamaru found it almost amazing that Sasuke could do it so easily. "Are you alright?" Sasuke asked.

Konohamaru nodded but sounded unsure of himself, as if his response was forced. "Yeah, I'm ok." It really was forced, but he seemed to have convinced himself that it sounded normal so Sasuke dropped it for now at lest. "What are these things?" He asked.

"Demon, there must be a lot of them around to do this." Sasuke said, looking around just encase more of them were around. Konohamaru looked back toward the house where the three tailed fox had first attacked him, turning away when his eye fell on the to the woman that had been killed in such a brutal way. Sasuke looked where Konohamaru had and saw what he had seen.

"Come on." Sasuke said, heading toward his house, which hopefully had survived. He stopped running, almost falling from stopping so suddenly. He stopped just in time, a Shrunken flew past his face with just inches to spare, crashing into a nearby tree. He looked to the source and found 3 Demon had just took down a shinobi of the village. As soon as he was down they swarmed him, biting and clawing at him. All he could do is fight futile and scream in pain.

Sasuke pulled the Shrunken out of the tree and threw it at the fox in the center, striking it in the back and knocking it down. All them turned toward him immediately, letting them get a view of the man that Konohamaru could have gone with out. His face had been mauled and eaten beyond any recognition, it was just an uneven mass of flesh covered in blood, much like the rest of his body.

Konohamaru flinched from the sight, drawing his last Kunai and got ready to fight. Luckily the man had left his mark on the demons, one of them was limping severely, another was slowed down by the many wounds over it's body. The last was near death and nearly blind by the wound above his head pouring blood in to it's eyes. Sasuke looked over them, knowing he couldn't take all three and knowing that all of them would come after Konohamaru. So he tried to pick out the one most able to fight.

"You see the one with on the left with the limp?" Sasuke asked as the injured foxes came directly for Konohamaru.

"Yeah, I got it." Konohamaru reassured him, going at it before it could attack him. Sasuke did the same, going for the other two and incepting them before they could reach the boy.

Sasuke sent a punch at the first one, spinning on his heel and kicking the second. The both stumbled back, one of them ran to the left and other two the right. The one that went to the left turned and came at him front the font while the other came from the back. The one from the back crouched down as if he was going to jump and the one in the front kept going as if he was going to ram him. Sasuke got ready for the attack but was completely caught of guard when the one behind him charged him instead, ramming his legs. While the one in front jumped, pouncing on his chest.

He had to admit that they were smart and worked well together, most likely why they had done some much damage to Konoha. Sasuke was sent flipping into the air by the weaken but still powerful strength of them. And landed painfully on his head, falling on to his back. The demons were ready, knowing when and how he was going to hit the ground and acting accordingly.

Both of them tried to bite his neck but Sasuke flipped on to his feet, bringing the Kunai in his hand down on one of the unexpectant wolf to the left, going right through it's head and bringing it down. The second wolf with the head injury jumped back to avoid being hit next but wasn't nearly fast enough.

Konohamaru thrust the knife at the limping demon fox, but it still had enough speed to it so that it could dodge. Konohamaru tried again and missed, bring him dangerously close to the smart fox. It lent forward, easily able to bite Konohamaru…or lest it almost did. Konohamaru's long scarf had gotten caught the nearby tree, making him fall and luckily avoid the blow. The boy rolled over on to his back only to be pinned down by the fox placing a paw on his chest.

He raised his hands in defense as the demon fox attempted to bite him, the blade in his hand unintentionally slashing it's two front legs that were already injured. They were nearly severed, making the demon fall on top of the boy. With a loud whine and growl the demon cocked it's head forward about to strike, when it ran into the Kunai that Konohamaru lifted in defense.

The knife went straight to the back of it's throat and it pulled back, letting out a gargled whine as blood filled it's throat and it slowly suffocated to death in front of Konohamaru. He desperately tried to push it off, to slip from under it but he couldn't. He wasn't strong enough, so the most he could do was look away. It made it hard to do when the blood from it's mouth started dripping down on to him.

He kept trying, using all the strength he could muster but it was no use, it was just too heavy and it was pinning his hands down. He yelled in angry frustrations, with a small amount of desperation in his voice. The by far was the worst thing that ever happened to him, pinned down by and looking in the face of something that had just died on top of him, and was dripping blood over him.

He couldn't take it anymore… He yelled once more, feeling an energy swell up side of him. It was Chakra, and he didn't know what to do with it. It didn't matter because it was working on it's own, instilling itself around his body. Increasing his strength substantially. With one last yell, this time drawing Sasuke's attention, he tossed the dead demon off of him. Sending it flying in to the air at amazing heights before it crashed nearby.

Konohamaru's body was radiating a white aura from the Chakra, But all of it faded quickly. When Konohamaru was injured by that wooden stake and it went into his head, a small piece of it fractured his skull, and an even smaller piece got in to his brain. It could probably cause a lot of complications, but one of the effects of it was an increased amount of Chakra. None of which he could control or unleash for that matter unless he used that part of his brain.

"Konohamaru?" Sasuke looked at the boy questioningly, wondering if he had really just seen what he'd just seen.

But that didn't matter, Konohamaru was struggling to keep a strait face while he hastily tried to whip the blood off face. "I'm ok." Konohamaru getting to his feet, still trying to wipe away the last remaining drops of blood as if he couldn't get it off fast enough.

He admired the fact that Konohamaru didn't complain and tried to show strength and not let it get to him. But he was failing, still trying hard though. Sasuke didn't show that much resilience when he was young, and in his mind that was most likely why he turned out the way he was now. He was hoping that if Konohamaru was resilient now that he'd turn out exactly the opposite of him. Though he knew it wouldn't happen, if anything if he kept repressing emotions and things that he'd be 10 times worse then Sasuke could be now. That was the last thing he wanted.

Sasuke knelt down by Konohamaru, holding him by the shoulder and looking over him. It was even harder to keep a strait face with Sasuke this close to him. He want to just stop and tell Sasuke everything, but he couldn't, this wasn't the time or the place. "Your not alright." Sasuke said plainly.

Konohamaru sighed. "I-I can deal with this."

Sasuke shook his head and let go of him, "Come on." he said abruptly.

Sasuke led him in the opposite direction, moving along the roof tops to avoid being spotted by the demons. After a minute or so they were out of the village and into the surrounding forest. Sasuke led him a little farther until they came to a hill over looking Konoha.

"Konohamaru, I don't want you to have to '_deal with it_ '. I want you to show how you feel, I don't want you to keep it down." Sasuke said in his usual tone.

"No, I'm alright really." Konohamaru said, protesting the extra attention.

"Damnit, your not alright! I've seen you." Sasuke shouted.

"……"

"Stop holding it in!" Sasuke yelled even more fiercely, Konohamaru was trying to hold it in, but he couldn't under Sasuke's pressure.

"Ok! I hate it alright!" Konohamaru shouted back, dropping his head and letting the tears come freely now. "I had to keep going, or else everyone else was going to end up like that lady and that man. If I could help I had too."

A sob escaped from Konohamaru and more tears fell to the ground. "I looked at the lady, I herd her screaming when one of those things was tearing her apart. I hated it! I hated seeing all of that blood, I hated….when I was stuck under that demon and I…I couldn't do anything but look at it. All of that blood kept coming… It's still on me!"

Konohamaru was sobbing almost uncontrollably as he looked down at the blood covering his hands and arms. Sasuke wrapped his arms around the boy, holding him closely and forcing him to drop his hands. Konohamaru buried his face in to Sasuke's chest, forcing himself to stop crying, no matter how hard it was once he had started.

"It's alright Konohamaru…" Sasuke said softly.

"I didn't want you to end up like one of them…"

"I wouldn't-" On second through, maybe he would have if Konohamaru hadn't knocked one of those demons off of him.

Sasuke let go of him, holding him firmly by the shoulders. "Stay here."

"No! You can't go back down there alone." Konohamaru pleaded.

"You don't need to be there." Sasuke told him. "Stay here….for me."

"…" Konohamaru fell back, sitting down and looking up at Sasuke who kissed him on his forehead and dashed back towards Konoha. He was just left there alone, staring at the blood on his hands. Finally he just dropped his arms and fell back, laying against a tree. He didn't think it was possible but he felt worse now.

But he also felt something else…

That piercing feeling he got when Sasuke used his Sharingan on him. Konohamaru turned around and found himself looking up someone. He could almost see a vague familiarity to Sasuke in this person, but he was defiantly different. Their eyes were similar too, but still different.

Before Konohamaru could do anything, he felt Sharingan working inside of his mind. He wasn't sure what was happening, but he knew he was drifting out of consciousness. "Who are you?" Konohamaru managed to ask, but he was gone before he could even think of getting a response.


	6. Chapter 6: The heat is on part 2

Chapter 6: The heat is on part 2

Sasuke looked around at the damages, it wasn't total but it would take a long time to repair. While no one was able to kill the Nine-tails, the smaller hybrids were a different story. They were strong, but they weren't good at using it for anything besides biting. They had amazing Chakra, but they had no jutsu and when they used it, it was completely unfocused. So most of the time it ended up exploding off target, with a little luck they managed to get close to their mark.

The only thing they really used well was their natural speed, they excelled with it. The teamwork was another thing they were skilled with. That's we're most of the damage came from because they moved in packs. If there was one there was sure to be more in the shadows.

As clever as they were, it wasn't enough. Overall if they could use all of the Chakra they had, and learned how to use their strength along with their already sharp speed and teamwork. They would have been unbeatable and that would have been the end of Konoha.

But once again the Leaf prevailed, though the casualty count was much higher then the previous attack a few days ago. The damages were reparable, most of what property had been destroyed was already hurt from before. Konoha was down but far from out.

With a sigh he wiped the blood from his forehead, saving his last remaining Kunai. Sasuke started to debate with himself if he could make it back to his house and check if was still standing. Or should he just go get Konohamaru first. Thinking about it his house was no more then a minute from where he was standing,

Konohamaru needed the time alone, it forced him to think about everything that was going on in his mind. An extra minute wouldn't hurt.

Sasuke was pleasantly surprised that it was still standing and had escaped any damage. He looked around inside just to make sure, then decided it would be best if he retrieved a few supplies just encase something was still lurking.

10 Kunai, 10 Shrunken, and 5 explosive tags.

He managed to store away that much before he left again, heading back toward the forest were he left Konohamaru.

Sasuke moved through the village with a heightened sense of alertness, just incase anything tried to attack him. With a Kunai and hand he moved quickly through the streets and rooftops, anxious to get back to Konohamaru. Nothing else entered his mind, now the village around him. Now all who died and those still alive, not even weather his friends had survived. Just Konohamaru.

When he returned he found that Konohamaru was gone. 'Where did he go?' Sasuke looked, hoping to find him in a surrounding tree. Nothing there. He looked around the surrounding area, "Konohamaru!" Sasuke called out, waiting for some type of response. 'Maybe he went back in to village…' That was a good possibility knowing Konohamaru.

Sasuke sighed moving through the streets and checking just about everywhere. Especially at Konohamaru's house and his own. Still he came up with nothing, and it was starting to get a little strange. 'Maybe he's mad at me…' Sasuke though, he didn't say anything when Sasuke left. It may have been out of anger.

He really hoped Konohamaru wasn't mad.

Now that he had checked all of Konoha, Sasuke was getting worried. The only other place he hadn't looked was deeper in to the forest.

He looked around frantically as he entered the thick trees, knowing that the boy could have gone in just about any direction. If he had to he would search every inch of this forest to find him. But it was the worry that was getting to him.

"Kono-" Sasuke's voice trailed off when he saw a long blue scarf hanging on a tree branch. He rushed over to it, examining it more closely he could see it had been caught there rather then hung. There was no way that Konohamaru wouldn't notice that one of his favorite things was missing.

Sasuke clinched the blue cloth tightly, he was starting to get suspicious now.

Once again moving through the trees his mind started to try and think up any excuse that would explain this. The only thing he could think of was those Foxes may have found him and decided he would make a good meal.

"Damnit!"

Sasuke clinched the Kunai still in his hand.

"Konohamaru?" Sasuke made his way to a small clearing where he saw Konohamaru…His body at lest, and it was being carried by some one. Sasuke charged toward the one who had him, jumping in front of the man.

"…Itachi!" Sasuke could hardly believe his eyes, that quickly wore off, his surprise was replaced with a burning anger stronger then he ever felt again.

"Sasuke." Itachi looked over his brother, still keeping a tight grip on Konohamaru.

"What are you doing with him!" Sasuke growled, his Chakra building in his body.

He didn't give him a chance to answer before he rushed at him, A powerful energy glowing in the hand with the Kunai. 'Chidori?' Itachi was surprised to see that he had learned such a powerful skill and had become curious to just how powerful his brother had become.

"I've been wanting to say this to you…" Sasuke started as he moved closer. "I've lived hating you. And Also that I have lived only to kill you…I HAVE LIVED FOR THIS!"

He thrust his hand toward Itachi while completely forgetting about Konohamaru. With the boy still over his shoulder, Itachi grabbed his hand and with one tight squeeze he made him drop the Kunai. Then Itachi sent a strong punch in to Sasuke, sending Sasuke own hand into his stomach.

The boy fell to his knee and Itachi pushed him back to the ground. "Leave him alone…" Sasuke's voice was weak but it was gaining strength with each word. "Why are you taking him?" Sasuke asked, climbing on to his knees.

"These demons, are seeds of the Nine-Tails." Itachi explained, he didn't sound particularly worried about his brother.

"What do they have to do with him!" Sasuke sprang up from his knees with a Shrunken, throwing it at Itachi, who easily shifted his head to the side to avoid it. Sasuke threw a punch at him but Itachi easily dodged. Sasuke jumped and tried to kick him but Itachi stepped to the side.

As soon as Sasuke landed he got a sharp elbow in the back, dropping him to the ground. , "I have absolutely on interest in you right now." Itachi said clearly.

Sasuke attempted to hit him with a sweep kick but a stomp from Itachi stopped him. He wasn't fast enough, he wasn't quick enough, he wasn't powerful enough. Sasuke realized that easily 'Why is there such a gape between us! Why is he so much stronger….What have I been doing all this time?' Sasuke asked himself as Itachi picked him up by his neck.

"Why are you weak…" Itachi looked over his easily taken down brother. "Still not enough…" The grip around Sasuke's neck tightened "Hatefulness."

Sasuke's eyes opened wide, that meant something yet he couldn't figure out why his older brother would say something like that. Itachi obviously wanted him to hate him, but there was a deeper meaning to it…He was too mad too think about it.

"Tsujiyomi."

Sasuke found himself looking directly in to the eyes of Itachi until everything when black.

"What have you done to me?" Sasuke screamed.

"The world of the "Grasping Moon". All of Space. All of Time. Every Matter. Everything is under my control." Itachi's voice rang through his mind.

"No….!"

"For 24 hours you will relive that day."

"24 hours…No you can't take him! Leave him alone!…..AUHHHH!"

….


	7. Chapter 7: The Heat is On part 3

Chapter 7: The Heat is On part 3

Sasuke's stirred as his sense started to return to him. The replay of that day that went on continually in his mind started to fade out of existence and his eyes that had been open for that last 24 hours. They were blurry and unfocused just like his mind, but he was slowing coming together.

The first thing that came to his mind was 'Konohamaru…'. Lifting his hand to his head he blinked a few times letting his eyes refocus. "Damnit!" He shouted, finding himself laying on his back staring at the sky. It had been a day exactly, he woke up at the same time the Sharingan had been used on him.

But he was dead tired, he'd had been out for 24 hours but hadn't gotten any sleep. His stomach was screaming at him and his head was pounding, he couldn't move all of his body yet. "What did he do to me…." Sasuke sighed, this was just getting worse and worse.

Sasuke grabbed on to a tree and pulled himself to his feet, stretching some but regretting the movement as soon as he made it. He was pretty sure Itachi had broken something or came close to it. It was amazing that Itachi had done that with only one punch to the chest, and his back was pulsing from the elbow he'd received.

There was no way he'd be able to find Konohamaru now, too much time had passed and the gap between him and his brother was too large. Sasuke shook his head, still noticing that he had Konohamaru's scarf in his hand. Instead of filling him with anger it only filled him with sorrow.

The fact that he had failed Konohamaru, he told him to stay here and this happened. 'Maybe if I hadn't stopped to get these-" Sasuke glared down at the Kunai, Shrunken and explosive tags he'd stop to pack. Still he only was filled with sadness and regret, it wouldn't have mattered if he arrived earlier, the reason Konohamaru was taken was because he wasn't strong enough.

"Damnit!" Sasuke fell back against the tree, sliding down to the ground. The time for feeling sad about it was over, now the only thing that filled his mind was 'What am I going to do to get him back?' Sasuke looked towards Konoha, noticing something was a little off. The Village wasn't as damaged as it was the day before.

In fact there were hardly anymore damages then there were before those demons attacked. "What?" There was no way they could have fixed that much in one day. That's when he remembered something. "It must have been Naruto and Gaara." Which made him think, if Naruto and Gaara had some how did this much, maybe Konohamaru was safe.

It looked like he'd be searching Konoha again.

"Neji, you've been working all day, Take a break man." Kiba said, watching Neji training diligently, especially his Byakugan. He was the first person to be attacked last night by the Demons. There were about 50 of them when he stepped outside, The only thing he could do was run.

And he hated being in that type of position, which is why he was training so hard today. Mainly his Byakugan more extensively because of how bad his concentration was the day before. The noise was unimaginably loud, and the demon foxes were using there Chakra to making thing explode. Needless to say his Byakugan suffered because of it, when he needed it most to see the Foxes that were hiding, and there were many of them.

So he had to strengthen his Byakugan and his concentration. Preferably both at the same time, it wasn't easy considering there wasn't anything to test his concentration around. Kiba just sat back and watched, Neji made him sit down even though he offered to train with him.

Kiba had gotten an injury last night, One of those demons managed to take a bite out of his legs. It was ironic, Kiba being brought down by dog bite. Though he protested it as nothing, it did manage to slow him down a bit. "Done?" Kiba asked, leaning back against a tree trunk and stretching his bandaged leg out.

Neji knelt down, panting to catch his breath. He used mostly all of his Charka up after hours of seemingly endless training. A little weaker, Neji walked over to Kiba with an agreeing nod. Kiba sighed relivedly, climbing on to his feet and walking behind the other boy with a small smirk.

Kiba hugged Neji from behind, slipping his arms under Neji's and lifting him off the ground. "Kiba." Neji said annoyedly.

Kiba smirked "Come on, you must be tired."

"Not that kind of tired." Neji replied. Kiba's grip loosened somewhat so that he could plant his hands on Neji's chest.

"Really?" Kiba gently rubbed his nipples through his shirt, knowing this was turning him on somewhat.

"Your too injured." Neji said.

"You didn't say no…" Kiba said teasingly, grinning wildly. Finally Neji wiggled a little and slid out of his grasp, moving his hand behind him and poking him in the leg.

Kiba winced and involuntarily stepped back. "Your too injured." Neji said plainly, walking forward and leaving the other boy to catch up. Out of curiosity he used his Byakugan to look over Kiba, concentrating his Chakra on body heat. Most of it was swelling inside his crotch and leg, just as expected , and it was growing all over.

"I'll be careful." Kiba wrapped his arms around Neji's neck and kissing him on the cheek. Nibbling on his ear and whispering softly.

"Come on…If you didn't want this, you wouldn't have let me grab you again." Neji was silent, unmoving.

"I know you were using you Byakugan, you could see me coming the first time." Kiba said triumphantly.

Neji raised an eyebrow, "How?"

"Easy, I know you. Your scent changes subtlety every time you use you blood limit." Kiba whispered, moving down and kissing along the other boy's jaw line.

Kiba slipped his hands under Neji's shirt, feeling around his chest with gentle touch, barely making contact. "Ahh…" Neji tilt his head back a moaned, lifting his arms to help Kiba pull of his shirt.

The hands roaming around his chest drifted to his waist, slipping in to Neji's shorts. Kiba leaned forward, giving Neji an awkward kiss as he unbuttoned his pants, then pulling back to remove his own clothing.

Kiba pulled off his jacket and shirt, tossing it aside with his pants before wrapping his arms around Neji again and pulling down his shorts again and gently rubbing the erection underneath. In a swift motion Kiba pushed him against a nearby tree, pressing his chest to Neji's back and his cock against Neji's entrance.

He never liked the feeling of helplessness, but he loved what Kiba did to him. How he took control, and even when he was the uke he still gave the feeling of dominance. Kiba buried his face in Neji's neck, biting above the shoulder and making Neji thankful for high collars.

Neji clinched out a small hiss when he felt Kiba enter him with one quick thrust. He started fast and hard, wrapping his arms around Neji's waist and stroking his cock in time with his thrust.

Neji laid his head back on Kiba's shoulder, closing his eyes tightly and sighing with relief when the pre-cum made Kiba's thrusts smother and more pleasurable. Kiba winched and almost stopped completely when he accidentally shifted his weight on to his injured leg. He found himself almost falling over but he used his hold on Neji's waist to shift his weight on to his other leg and continue with out Neji noticing.

"Ahh…" Neji couldn't help but moan, each time Kiba pulled out and drove his cock in to him along with the strokes on his own erection. It pulled him closer and closer to his limit.

"Kiba..!" a loud groan tore from his throat, his hole body tensed and tightened around Kiba's cock as he came. Spilling his seed on the tree trunk he was pressed against leaving him tired and a little weaker.

Kiba smiled, lifting an arm and pressing it against Neji's back, pressing him harder against the wood. He burred his face in Neji's neck again, the sudden tightness of the body under him drawing a spurt of cum from his body. He growled, biting down almost painfully defiantly enough to leave another mark. With a another hard thrust his whole cock was inside of Neji, filling him with the warm liquid.

"Heh, Still think I'm too injured." Kiba said with another smirk.

Neji sighed "You almost fell over."

"Huh? No way." Kiba's smirk became one of moderate nervousness.

"Really? Then why haven't you moved yet?" Neji asked.

"I like being like this, I could stay here forever…" Kiba snuggled closer to Neji's neck.

"I-I…could too. But you know we're going to have to move eventually."

"I know, but just not right now."

Sasuke grunted in frustration, punching a nearby wall. Konohamaru was nowhere to be found, it seemed Itachi had taken him after all and he only wasted more time look. He could go blindly in the forest and look for him, but nothing good could come of that.

To make things worse he was tired and hungry, but he felt that if he stopped to eat and sleep that he was giving up on Konohamaru. 'I have to think about this rationally…' Sasuke said to himself, realizing that he was right in front of his house.

But he found it easier to think and stay awake when he was wondering the city. 'I need to find them first…but there's no way I could possibly be able to track them down.' Sasuke realized that he would need help for this job, that meant listing the aid of other leaf shinobi.

His main choice was Naruto and Gaara. They could go back in time to stop this from happening, but they were nowhere to be found. He never really paid attention to his classmates, so he barely knew them. He had to find someone though, but most of them seemed to be missing so to speak.

Sasuke couldn't give up that easy, he needed some way to track down Itachi and Konohamaru. So that was what he was preferably looking for. He wished right now that Kakashi…could be found. He knew that he could and most likely would help, just another person that disappeared.

It was time for a second search, this time more thorough.

Finally Kiba and Neji decided to move, and ended up coming to Kiba's house. Neji forced Kiba to sit down and elevate his injured leg. Neji didn't have time to rest himself, an extremely hasty knock came at the door.

With a tired sigh Neji opened the door, finding Sasuke standing there. To be honest, he looked like hell and Neji openly told him so, his bluntness even surprised himself.

"I don't have time for that right now. Isn't this Kiba's house?" Sasuke asked impatiently.

"Eh? What do you want?" Kiba called from the couch, Akamaru resting lazy in his lap.

"I need your help, both of you." Sasuke tried to sound normal, hiding the tired and weakness in his voice. He failed miserably and only made himself sound worse, giving them both enough curiosity to listen to what he had to say.

Both of them sat down on the couch while Sasuke opted to stand, knowing he'd probably start falling asleep. "Alright, what's wrong with you?" Kiba asked.

"Konohamaru has been kidnapped and I need your help to get him back." Sasuke said plainly, getting right to the point.

"Hmm, Who did it?" Neji asked.

"Itachi." Both of them tensed at the name,

"Are we talking about the same person?" Kiba asked just to be sure.

"My brother." Sasuke felt anger rising at the sound of his name.

"….."

"If your going to help we need to leave today." Sasuke said.

"Neji? What do you think?" Kiba looked over at Neji who had the expression on his face that looked he was think.

"It's our obligation as leaf shinobi to bring back one of our own." Neji sighed, sounding as if he was reciting those words from a book.

"That sounds like a yes, alright we're in." Kiba told him, looking down at Akamaru.

"Alright come on then." Sasuke said, heading toward the door.

Neji objected. "We can't go now, there is no way we'd be able to do anything in this condition."

"What?"

"I'm tired and out of Charka, Kiba's leg is injured, the only thing keeping you from falling asleep where you stand is the loud noise your stomach is making." Neji pointed out.

"We don't have time for that!" Sasuke shouted.

"And what do you think we'll do when we come against Itachi? I don't even know if you'd make it that far in you condition. If none of us are at our best, we'll be killed before we ever see him coming." Neji shot back.

"No, we have to go now, the longer we wait the farther away they get!" Sasuke's voice was frantic and on edge.

"Alright then, either you get a meal and some rest or go with out us. Your choice." Neji made it clear of his position on the matter and farther arguing about it was pointless.

"If we wait that long Konohamaru will be killed!" Sasuke yelled, sounding almost desperate.

"Someone like Itachi wouldn't go through the trouble of abducting him just to kill him." Neji sat back on the couch folding his arms.

Sasuke was silent for a moment, then grunted in defeat. He couldn't do this alone and if he tried he might as well have stayed here, ate and slept while he got nowhere.

Sasuke made his way back home, opening his refrigerator and shifting blindly through it. Neji was right, his stomach was the only thing keeping him awake. The only thing he found that didn't need to be cooked was a bowl of Natto Konohamaru left there the last time he was here. Maybe he put it there just to tease him, 'Konohamaru would do something like this…'

He sighed and pulled out the bowl, not caring that it was cold on top of the fact that he didn't like this type of food. It reminded him of Konohamaru, that was what he need right now. Silently he began to eat.


	8. Chapter 8: Second Round Knock Out

Chapter 8: Second Round Knock Out

With a yawn and a small stretch, Kiba awakened. Looking over and finding Neji still asleep and Akamaru asleep in his lap. He couldn't resist giving Neji a small kiss before lowering his injured leg to the ground and standing up.

"This is going to be one hell of a mission. Better have a my energy." Kiba mumbled to himself, walking to the kitchen and opening the refrigerator and looking around. He settled for a bowl of cereal and some orange juice having eaten a few hours before.

By the time he finished Neji had awakened and walked in to the kitchen. Akamaru had found his way on to his head and Neji promptly pulled him off and gave him to Kiba. "I think he likes you." Kiba teased, Neji rolled his eyes, fixing his hair before heading back in to the living room.

"Hungry?" Kiba got an affirmative bark from Akamaru. He set him down on the table, retrieving a bag of dog food from the corner and pouring a sizable amount in to Akamaru bowl. Watching as the dog leapt happily toward it. "Eat up." he said, rubbing Akamaru's head "We got some hard work ahead of us."

Neji sat down on the couch, checking his equipment while he waited. It wasn't long before he pulled out his first Kunai did he hear an impatient knock at the door. "The door's unlocked Sasuke." Neji called out, knowing it could only be him.

And just as he expected, Sasuke walked in, stopping in front of the couch. He was wearing an all black outfit instead of his usual blue and white, on his back he had a small book bag most likely filled with supplies. "Ready?" He asked.

"Yes." Neji stood to his feet, putting his equipment back in it's place and looking towards the kitchen where Kiba was still knelling by Akamaru. Seeing that Sasuke was here and Neji was ready to go, he emerged with Akamaru sitting on his head. He usual would have had him in his coat, and would now if it wasn't an unusual 90 degrees out.

Sasuke headed outside, Kiba and Neji following closely behind. "Since your looking for Konohamaru, I assume there's a story behind it." Kiba said. Sasuke glanced back, it might be helpful if he told them what happened.

"When Konoha was being attacked, I led Konohamaru out of the village To a safe spot near the forest. When I returned he was missing and I tried to follow as best I could. I found this-"

Sasuke held up Konohamaru's scarf. "I kept going and I found Itachi carrying away Konohamaru."

There was a small silence between them before Sasuke continued. "I found out that those demons that attacked the other day were the Nine-Tail's offspring. And he took Konohamaru for some reason connected to that." Sasuke told them.

"That doesn't make any sense, Konohamaru doesn't have anything to do with them." Kiba couldn't make any sense out of it.

"He could possibly want to use him as a lure." Neji suggested.

"A lure? But he could have found just anyone for that." Sasuke said. "Maybe Konohamaru was just anyone…"

'He picked the wrong anyone…' Sasuke growled in his mind.

"Yeah, there's probably still a lot of them around in the forest. But what would he want to lure them for?" Kiba asked.

"Maybe to capture them." Neji lifted his hand to his chin as he usually did when he was thinking.

They quickly made it out of Konoha, Sasuke steeping out of Kiba's way. With his strong sense of smell he was able to pick up something immediately. "Let me see that scarf…" Kiba requested. Sasuke handed him Konohamaru's scarf and he checked the sent. "I smell the sent of 2 people, one of them is definitely Konohamaru."

"How far away?" Sasuke asked.

"2 miles at the most." Kiba told him, shifting his direction to the left to get on course.

'Where am I….'

Konohamaru finally woke up after a day of sleeping, he felt that drag and energy loss that came with over sleeping. Along with the pain coming from the wound on the back of his head, like someone had it that same spot repeatedly.

The first thing he remembered was looking to the face of someone that resembled Sasuke. 'What did he do to me?' Konohamaru thought, finally opening his eyes. He was blinded by sunlight, making him close his eyes again. He was about to groan, but thought better of it when he felt his hands were tied, which was uncomfortable because he was laying on his back.

'That person…he may still be nearby…' Konohamaru thought, listening carefully for any voices. Just barely he herd some behind him, two people were talking.

"We got people on our trial coming this way. You want me to handle it Itachi?"

"Hmm…It must be him again. He may cause a problem…Go ahead Kisame."

'Itachi, Kisame? Who are they?' Konohamaru thought, but that wasn't his main concern. He had to get out of here, but first he had to get out of these ropes. He felt around his body, hoping that any of his equipment was left. Nope, he had nothing left…

Konohamaru froze, trying to be as still as possible when he herd someone walking past him. Apparently he wasn't still enough because that person stopped.

"?"

'Crap…!' Konohamaru almost jumped when he felt a large foot slip under his back and roll him on to his stomach. Leaving him face down on the ground.

It was apparently enough to satisfy him and the man left.

Kiba came to an abrupt stop, watching a Kunai fly past his face. "What the hell!" He looked toward the source, finding a man in full black looking towards them from the ground. More distinctly he had an extremely large sword wrapped in bandages.

"Sorry but I can't let you go any farther." The man said, lifting the sword off his shoulder and holding it in a ready stance. Neji looked over him, knowing he recognized that face from someplace

"Your Hoshigaki Kisame aren't you…?" Neji asked, using his Byakugan to attempt to look inside the sword

"Not as dumb as you look after all." Kisame replied.

"You know him?" Kiba asked.

"No, but I know he's an S-class criminal." Neji found a large amount of Chakra in his sword, and it seemed a Jutsu was sealed on to it. Even stranger he found tenketsu points, and they all seemed to be pulling inward.

"That sword is Samehada isn't, it absorbs Chakra. Am I correct?" Neji asked.

"Pretty smart, to bad I have to kill you." Kisame smirked, swinging the sword at them and sending a burst of wind forward. The three quickly jumped out of the way, watching the tree branch they were on be blown to pieces.

"Damnit! I can't waste time with this guy!" Sasuke shouted, throwing a Shrunken at him. Kisame blocked it with his sword and leapt forward.

"I need to go find Konohamaru!" Sasuke dived back as Kisame, bringing the Samehada down from over his head, narrowly missing Sasuke.

Neji and Kiba came from behind, kicking him in the back. "Alright then, Just keep going in this direction and you'll find him." Kiba said, jumping down to the ground with Neji and landing in Kisame's path of Sasuke.

"Idiots, instead of running you should be saying your last words." Kisame growled.

"Just don't let his sword touch you." Neji whispered, getting a nod from Kiba.

"You think we're that easy to beat. Let's show him Akamaru! Mimic me!" Kiba said, Akamaru jumping on to the ground and in a rush of smoke a copy of Kiba appeared.

Sasuke had more to worry about then just Itachi, Konohamaru's life was at stake and he couldn't afford to get unfocused. The fact that he couldn't beat his brother had been realized and he didn't have time to be mad about it now.

So he'd have to get him out with out Itachi noticing, easier said then done. And with his injures from the day before, he wasn't nearly as fast. So he couldn't even be caught by Kisame on the way back.

Sasuke moved slowly with soft breaths as he approached a clearing, peering through the bushes and using the strong winds to cover any sounds he was making. Sure enough he saw Konohamaru laying face down on the ground, his hands and legs tied.

Itachi was nearby with his back turned, apparently shifting threw a back for something. Konohamaru peaked one eye open, looking up at Itachi, then shifting his gaze around randomly. 'Konohamaru! I have to make sure he sees me…'

Sasuke waited for the wind again, which seemed to be blowing frequently too Sasuke's favor, then peaked his head subtly out of the bushes to be visible. Konohamaru's eyes went wide when he saw him, but he still remained quite.

Once again the boy began to get that piercing feeling he always got when the Sharingan was used on him. But this time he felt that uniquely Sasuke feeling, completely different then the one he got when Itachi used it on him. 'Sasuke!' Konohamaru shouted in his mind.

'Konohamaru! Are you alright?' Sasuke asked.

'Beside laying face down in the dirt and my arms and head hurt, yes.'

'I'll kill the bastard!' Sasuke shouted, forgetting about the Sharingan connection for a moment.

'Sasuke?'

'He hurt you, I'll murder him!'

'Sasuke!'

'…'

'Help me, I don't know what he wanted with me. But… it looks like it involves a bottle of green stuff and a scroll.' Konohamaru said, glancing up he could just barely see to the side of Itachi and what he was doing.

'Alright… I'll get you out of there, just stay quiet and as still as possible.' Sasuke told him.

Sasuke thought about it, but quickly came up with a simple plan. He quietly did the hand seals for a transformation Jutsu, changing into a field mouse and walking causally out of the bushes.

Itachi looked over his shoulder, not seeing anything out of the ordinary he turned back to what he was doing. With a sigh of relief, Sasuke jumped on to Konohamaru's back, changing back.


	9. Chapter 9: The storm before the storm

Chapter 9: The storm before the storm

Konohamaru stifled a grunt from the extra weigh on his body, trying to remain still as Sasuke cut the ropes with a Kunai.

"Foolish little brother.."

Sasuke jumped and looked back to see Itachi standing there. He rolled to the side to avoid Itachi's hand reaching to grab him. But by the time he came to a stop on his knee, Itachi was behind him again. "You hurt him. I'll kill you!" Sasuke shouted, throwing the Kunai in his hand behind him. Itachi shifted to the side and avoided it, grabbing Sasuke's hand before he could pull it back.

Sasuke growled angrily, turning around with another Kunai in his hand and driving it to Itachi's shoulder. He was surprised when his brother melted into a pile of water. 'A copy' Sasuke's mind screamed, but it was too late. Itachi already had him by the neck from behind.

Itachi started to squeeze down on Sasuke, but stopped when he felt a knife going into his back and a small arm wrap around his neck "Let him go!" Konohamaru yelled, Sasuke's eyes widened when he realized what the boy had just done.

"No! Get out of here!" Sasuke shouted as best he could with someone holding him by the throat.

With the distraction as cover, Sasuke pulled another Kunai out of his holder, driving it back into Itachi's stomach. Itachi grabbed his arm before he could reach him, with a sigh he tossed Sasuke aside, sending his body through a tree.

Itachi lifted Konohamaru off his back easily, holding him in the same grip he had Sasuke. He didn't want to hurt the boy too much for Jutsu purposes, he had no choice but to use Sharingan. He looked in Konohamaru's fearful eyes, attempting to use the technique but finding something strange.

Itachi looked over at Sasuke pulling himself to his feet, the Sharingan Jutsu was already in effect on Konohamaru. Acting as a barrier from Itachi's. The only other person that could have done this was…Sasuke, 'He learned to use Sharingan since the last time we fought…?'

He didn't think it was possible, learning a Sharingan Jutsu in only a day, most of which he was unconscious during. He didn't know his brother had so much determination…But it was a Jutsu and a Jutsu could be released.

Itachi tossed Konohamaru aside, knocking what little air he had left in him out on landing.

Konohamaru held his neck and took deep breaths, filling his deprived lungs. 'Sasuke… We have a chance. If I run now, and you run now. We can get away!' Konohamaru shouted, using his connection with Sasuke through the Sharingan. But he got no response at all, and that uniquely Sasuke feeling changed into one that reminded him of Itachi, only worse.

As much as he hated feeling this way, he started to wish that the connection could be broken. This side of Sasuke felt…cold and painful. Konohamaru looked over to Sasuke who was glaring at Itachi with a furry Konohamaru had never seen anything close to.

"Sasuke!" Konohamaru called out to him, but Sasuke didn't know or care that he was there. Konohamaru climbed to his feet, watching Itachi walk toward Sasuke. Sasuke charged at him, throwing a punch at his brother. Itachi caught his fist easily, pulling Sasuke in by it and sending a counter punch at him.

Konohamaru came out of nowhere, throwing himself in-between them, taking the punch for Sasuke. The boy screamed in pain, still managing to do what he set out to do by throwing his head back and hitting Sasuke in the jaw. "Sasuke!" He shouted, falling to the ground. Hoping that would snap him out whatever he had fallen in to.

"Konohamaru!" Sasuke shouted, pulling away from Itachi and run toward the boy. That seemed to do it for the most part.

Neji stood with heavy breaths, his back against a tree. He used his Byakugan to find Kiba, standing in the same position 60 feet away at the edge of his vision range. Kisame was out in the open, leaning on his sword clearly tired, waiting for either one of them to make a move.

Kiba could tell Neji was using Byakugan even though he couldn't see him. He also knew Neji was good a lip reading, so he mouthed out a message to him. "Just in front of Kisame, I had Akamaru lay a trap. I don't think he can see it, but if we came lead him in to it…"

Neji checked around for the trap, having to pour a little more Chakra in to the Byakugan to see under the thin layer of bushes, undergrowth and leaves to find a set of 4 explosive tags place in a box formation. If Kisame got with in that formation…

'Huh?' Neji felt a drop of water fall on to his nose through the trees, the wind had picked up a lot since this fight started, and it started raining now also. But it was barely more then a sprinkle, most of it didn't even make it through the leaves. He ignored it, pulling a shrunken out of it's holder, it was time to do some leading.

Neji jumped out from around the tree, diving to the side and tossing the shrunken at Kisame. Kisame lifted his sword. Knocking it away and jumping at Neji, Kisame was quick, despite the fact that his Samehada was so large and heavy. Kisame lifted the sword above his head, bring it down on Neji.

Neji blocked with his Heavenly Spin, sending a rush of Charka outward that protected him from the attack.

"Gatsuuga!"

Kisame looked upward and saw two blasts of swirling energy rushing at him from a now revealed Kiba and a mimicking Akamaru by his side. Kisame turned quickly, lifted his sword to block his attack easily.

That's when something strange happened, Just when Neji stopped using Heavenly spin the sky roared with thunder and a bolt of lighting came flying down. This was obviously not ordinary lighting, it usually would have struck the tallest thing like one of the trees. But this lighting was drawn to Chakra.

Neji stopped just in time, making the largest source of Chakra Kisame because of Kiba and Akamaru's Gatsuuga. The bolt struck him, sending thousands of bolts of electricity in to his body and knocking Neji back. Kisame yelled in pain, crashing through the tree branches and falling to the ground just as the soft sprinkle of rain turned in to a heavy shower.

Kisame landed, falling into the center of the laid trap and setting off all 4 tags at once. An explosion followed, sending a blast dirt and smoke in to the air, all of it quickly washed away by the rain.

When the dust cleared, there was nothing left of Kisame…

"What the hell was that!" Kiba said, running over to Neji while his gaze shifted around nervously. Neji looked toward the sky, using his Byakugan to see through the trees, the first thing he saw was a massive amount of Chakra coming from the east, Neji could hardly believe this was a storm he was seeing.

A unusual storm of course produced unusual lighting.

"There's an enormous amount of Chakra swirling around in the sky… It's inside the approaching storm." Neji told him, sitting up a rubbing the back of his head.

"Is that a bad thing?" Kiba asked even though he already knew the answer.

"It's a very bad thing, we need to get back now." Neji commanded promptly.

"Damnit! I hope we have time to go and find Sasuke." Kiba rubbed his forehead, now wishing he had brought his coat with him. Akamaru still settled on his head and ignored the rain.

"If we reach him quickly we may." Neji explained, obviously sounding distracted and Kiba easily noticed it.

"Neji? Is it that bad?" Kiba asked, Neji looked at him, silently giving his answer. He'd never seen that much Chakra in his life, it easily outlined the full frame of the storm. And the storm was huge, half the size of Konoha. If the lighting didn't kill you….

Sasuke didn't stop, he picked Konohamaru and held the boy tightly in his arms. He still wasn't fast enough, Itachi was in front of him by the time he did so. His first priority was to get Konohamaru out of here, he didn't want to fight anymore. But Itachi wouldn't let him go with out one.

Sasuke dived to the side but Itachi grabbed his neck and pulled him out of the air. He looked in to his younger brother's eye and used Mange Sharingan, easily breaking through the jutsu already in affect. But he didn't sever the connection completely, and that suddenly worked to Sasuke and Konohamaru's disadvantage.

Konohamaru ended up being hit the same attack through it.

"Sasuke!" Konohamaru yelled, his head hurt and he could see nothing but darkness. He managed to hold back his screams of pain long enough to call out to him again. He felt Sasuke near and he fought in his mind to get closer. "Sasuke!"

"Konohamaru!" Sasuke called out, fighting to use his Sharingan to get closer. "AAA! It hurts!" Konohamaru shouted out. "Hold on! You…you can do this. Just keep…keep listening to my voice." Sasuke said, the pain visible in his voice.

Konohamaru yelled at the top of his lungs, hearing Sasuke letting out weakened cry while trying to stifle them. It was something about this situation that set Konohamaru off, he felt the same anxious and furious feeling he felt when that dead demon fox was pinning him down.

Only it was worse this time because Sasuke was trapped with him.

Chakra rushed through his body, more then he felt before. It instilled it self in his muscles, increasing his strength enough for him to break out of Sasuke's hold and send a kick into Itachi's stomach, forcing him to release the Jutsu.

Sasuke fell out of his hold, panting heavily, he noticed it was raining now, he hadn't felt any of that when Itachi was using the Sharingan on him. He looked over at Konohamaru who was bursting with Chakra like before. It even seemed to surprise Itachi.

This time was different, he knew what to do with it now. "Konohamaru RENDAN!" The Boy shouted, It seemed that it at lest promised to be an interesting thing to watch.

Some how Konohamaru had retrieved his scarf from Sasuke and clinched it tightly in his left hand as he charged at Itachi with increased speed, wrapping it around his neck in it's usual spot right before jumping at Itachi.

Itachi didn't move, wanting see what was going to happen.

Konohamaru sent a kick to the side of Itachi's head, still going forward and sending his knee in to Itachi's face. Konohamaru then grabbed his neck, rolling over Itachi's head and curling in to a ball.

The long scarf filled with Chakra, the cloth becoming very much solid as it stuck Itachi in the back of his head repeatedly while Konohamaru rolled in the air. The boy landed with an uncharacteristic agility, coming to rest on one knee and sending his fist into the ground.

With that, all of the Charka he'd build up was unleashed unintentionally, rushing in to the ground and exploding in a rush of flames and flying mud.

Konohamaru was sent flying outward, away from Itachi and Sasuke. Luckily he was caught by Kiba, who turned on his heal and ran the opposite way. "Where did you learn that?" He asked confusedly.

"I don't know, it just came out that way." The boy replied.

Sasuke followed quickly, catching up with a hasty Kiba and Neji. "Sasuke, we have a problem." Neji started. And he wasn't just talking about Itachi.


	10. Chapter 10: 5 minutes: part 1

Chapter 10: 5 minutes: part 1

Once again, if your not reading 'Naruto: Sands of time' at the same time as this, this chapter is going to be a little confusing. May even make you mad at the end. And Also this chapter is going to be a little short, sorry.

5 minutes left

"What problem?" Sasuke asked.

"This storm." Neji said. "This isn't an ordinary storm, there are large amounts of Chakra with in it. It's going to make things around here very bad, very quickly, we need to get to shelter now."

"There's an even worse problem behind us!" Konohamaru said, slipping out of Kiba's arms and leaping up to Sasuke.

Sasuke looked back to see Itachi trailing them, he was easily much faster then they were and gaining fast. Sasuke growled in frustration, about to turn back and take him on when Neji stopped him.

"You can't waste time fighting him, if he doesn't kill you the storm will." Neji looked as if he just realized something, his memory decided to work at the moment and let him remember an important detail. "And we can't use Jutsu."

"What!" Sasuke growled, "How are we supposed to defend against him if we can't use Jutsu?"

"More specifically we can't use Chakra. That storm is drawn to it, so if you build any Chakra, lightning will strike you. That's what killed Kisame, he was surrounded by a lot of Chakra and lightning hit him. Only it will be worse for us because the storm is closer now." Neji told him.

"So what are we supposed to do?" Sasuke asked.

"Simple, we let Itachi fight himself."

4 minutes 10 seconds left

"What do you mean?" Sasuke asked.

Konohamaru yelled when Itachi appeared in front of him, only before he could grab the boy a bolt of lightning came flying down from the sky. Hitting him in the blink of an eye before he could move.

The force sent Konohamaru flying backwards but he managed to stabilize himself and kick off a tree. Rejoining Sasuke and moving past the wounded Itachi. "Are you alright?" Sasuke asked. Konohamaru nodded.

"That's what I mean, to use that speed it expends Chakra. Being this close to the storm cell will attract the smallest amounts, so every time he dose that or use any type of Jutsu lightning will be drawn to him.." Neji said.

Sasuke snorted in annoyance but agreed to it any way, he didn't have much other choice.

"Sasuke, look out!" Konohamaru shouted. Sasuke looked back , seeing a kunai flying at him from Itachi's direction. Sasuke pulled his head back and just barely managed to avoid it, but he couldn't avoid the explosion from the tag wrapped around it that followed.

He was knocked to the side away from the blast, falling blindly in a current of wind and rain.

Konohamaru, who had been shielded from most of the blast by Sasuke's body, pulled

himself out of Sasuke's grasp. Grabbing Sasuke's arm in one hand and grabbing on to a tree branch in the other.

By then Sasuke had regained his senses and pulled himself up before the boy slipped, saying a small thank you to Konohamaru before warping his arms around the boy and jumping backwards. Konohamaru found it confusing at first, until he Itachi reached them. Itachi jumped after them, moving a lot faster then they were falling and quickly gaining.

"Konohamaru, get ready." Sasuke said, shifting his grip on the boy so he held him under his arms.

"What are you going to do?" Konohamaru asked quickly.

"I'm not sure exactly."

3 minutes 30 seconds remaining

Sasuke tossed Konohamaru up behind him, aligning himself so Itachi was directly above him. Then holding his hand toward Itachi, he charged a Chidori. And just as he expected, a bolt of lightning came down from the sky, burning through the trees and hitting Itachi in his back.

Or so Sasuke thought, until the Jutsu was released and a tree branch only remained, which burst in to flames .

"Sasuke! Move!" Kiba called down, jumping toward him.

Sasuke looked back while still falling, finding Itachi had moved behind him. But before Itachi could strike, another lighting bolt came down from the storm, hitting Sasuke's Chidori charged hand. The shockwave from the lighting strike knocked Itachi back, but Sasuke remained relatively safe. The electricity only added to the power of the Chidori.

It became a blinding light, so much power that he could barely hold it. Sasuke just had enough time to turn towards Itachi and let it go.

Itachi lifted his arm over his eyes, shielding his eyes from the approaching light. But when he turned away he noticed something on the ground…something familiar….

"Kisame…" And he appeared to still be alive.

Itachi jumped down to the ground, lifting Kisame on to his shoulder with his usual speed and jumping out of range. With the Chidori behind him he was able to use his speed with out drawing lightning, the Chidori had become a lighting rod, every strike it drew in made it more powerful.

They could see just how powerful it had become when the jutsu hit the ground. Dirt and trees were either incinerated or sent flying upward, engulfing Sasuke.

"Sasuke!" Konohamaru shouted.

"I can't see…" Sasuke lifted his arm to his eyes and blocked the flying debris. He could barely hear the boy over the explosion with that was rushing at him, let alone find where his voice was coming from or know which way he was supposed to go.

Konohamaru pulled his goggles down over his eyes and dived toward him before Neji and Kiba could stop him. "What are you doing!" Kiba yelled.

"I'm going-" Konohamaru's voice was cut off by the sound of rushing wind, it became so strong that it actually pushed Konohamaru at first. And because of his light body and the resistance he faced, it took him while to reach Sasuke.

"What's going on?" Kiba asked, the wind pushing him against the base of the tree and almost snapping off the branch he was standing on.

"It's the storm, we're too close.." Neji shouted, the winds were almost strong enough to be a called tornado, and they were just on the outer edge of the storm. Neji didn't want to think about how bad it was farther in.

2 minutes 20 seconds left

Konohamaru fell through the dirt and debris carried by the wind, the air currents were growing increasingly stronger as he went deeper. Just barely through the goggles, Konohamaru could see Sasuke, caught in to the wake in the winds and also being pushed back.

Konohamaru grabbed on to his back, yelling out to him which way to go.

Sasuke turned around per the boy's instructions, kicking off a flying tree and landing next to Kiba and Neji. Just barely making it before Konohamaru's grip faltered and he was blown away by the winds.

"AAAAAA-huh?"

He didn't get far before Kiba grabbed him out of the air and put him under his arm. Jumping forward with strong winds pushing at his back

1 minute 30 seconds left

"What happened to Itachi?" Kiba asked,

"He went the opposite way." Neji told him, he was able to see him through the Byakugan while Sasuke launched the Chidori. "Were is Sasuke?"

Kiba pointed behind him where Sasuke was trailing behind from his injuries, but still keeping up with good pace.

"Tree!" Konohamaru shouted, being held at an angle where he could see behind him. Sasuke looked back, not having enough time to do anything but crouch under it and keep going. Kiba and Neji jumped over, getting a small boost of speed by kicking off it.

"We're almost there, you holding on Konohamaru?" Kiba asked. Konohamaru nodded, even though this was highly uncomfortable. And the only thing that was stopping him from screaming in pain from being bombarded by the sudden hail that fell along with wood, dirt, and rocks. Was that Sasuke was behind him, constantly looking to make sure he was alright. In spite the fact that it would be safer if he looked forward.

1 minute left

The 4 emerged from the forest, entering a seemingly empty Konoha.

"Where are we supposed to go?"


	11. Chapter 11: The Eye of the storm

Chapter 11: The Eye of the storm

Sasuke looked back, holding his arm above his eyes to block the rain being blown his way by the winds. He couldn't see anything now that they were out side, everything was pitch black. He couldn't see his hand in front of his face let alone someone behind him.

A flash of lightning gave him a split second snapshot of everyone else. The first thing his eyes were drawn to was Kiba, Konohamaru was on his back with his arms wrapped tightly around his neck. He was hanging off of Kiba, being pulled away by the winds, his mouth was open most likely yelling loudly.

He almost was about to turn back to help him when he another flash of lightning revealed something just in front of him. He cringed as the resulting thunder crashed in the sky over them, he slammed his hands over his ears feeling as if his eardrums would burst.

Just ahead he saw an opening, another cave or underground passage. Right now anything was better then being outside, but Sasuke wasn't sure if anyone else had saw it. He was surprised to see that they were still behind him and not separated.

Another bolt of lightning struck someplace nearby, giving Sasuke another, this time longer image. On closer look Neji was using his Byakugan, which was the cause of all of the lighting strikes. Tree roots sticking out of the ground above them offered some cover from it, considering that they were in a ditch between the path way in Iruka's basement and what looked like the second part of it.

Neji was reaching back, he had Kiba by the arm and was leading him along. So Sasuke didn't have to worry about them not seeing the second part of the passage, only getting there. He pushed forward, counting off the steps in his mind as a marker. He guessed about 14 steps from where he was the passage lay.

He stopped about where he thought it was, taking cautious steps until he felt the ground sloping downward and knew he was there.

The next lightning strike wasn't obstructed by anything, though Neji was still using Byakugan and it had just managed to hit him by strong odds. Neji screamed in pain, quickly letting go of Kiba before he electrocuted him.

The force of the strike knocked Sasuke in to the passage and Kiba with Konohamaru back on to the ground. All of them were able to see what happened through the light produced, and it seemed there was nothing anyone could do about it.

"NEJI!" Kiba shouted, loud enough to be heard over the lightning, watching the light fade and everything return to darkness. They all felt an immediate difference, the ground dipped some what, sending Neji's body sliding face first down in to the path way. Kiba jumped down after him, landing right next to the boy.

That lightning strike did more then create an imprint in the ground, it loosened enough of the ground above them in the forest to make what was above them unstable. In a domino like effect the passage caved in, starting from the entrance and moving down. But the process was slow, giving Konohamaru enough time to get off of Kiba's back and Kiba enough time to lift Neji on to his shoulder.

In a blind panic they charged forward, hearing the cave in halt a few seconds later when they were out of range.

"Neji! Are you alright!" Kiba asked frantically, laying Neji down against a wall and checking for a pulse. Which took some doing because he couldn't find the right spot.

"Something…smells good." Neji said weakly, a sense of humor in his usually strait forward voice.

Kiba smiled gratefully, after seeing Kisame being destroyed by a lightning strike not nearly as powerful as that one, he didn't think Neji would survive. In fact now that his anxiousness was over, he could feel his body was burning from where he had touched Neji. "You do."

Neji repressed a his urge to cry out in pain, he felt like he was on fire and wouldn't be surprised if he was. Even worse it felt like everything internal was melting, besides being disoriented from the shock to his brain. A lot of things seem to be happening in his mind, like how no matter how hard he tried he couldn't stop using Byakugan even though all of his Chakra was gone.

He figured it would stop on his own, he didn't want to worry about it right now. "I…don't think I can walk." Neji said, trying to push himself to his feet but finding his legs disagreed immensely.

Kiba lifted him up, wrapping Neji's arm around his shoulder. Now that the heat had dulled on Neji's body, he felt actually quite good especially since Kiba was freezing. "Don't worry about it."

"Sasuke…are you down here?" Konohamaru said hopefully, almost pleadingly, standing just beyond where he heard Kiba and Neji. Konohamaru jumped with a small yelp when he heard a sound in the darkness. "Aaaaa!" Konohamaru yelled when he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"Konohamaru calm down it's me." Sasuke said, hearing the boy panting from fear.

"Oh. I knew that." Konohamaru felt around in the direction Sasuke's hand was coming from until he felt Sasuke's body. He clinched on to his shirt, making sure he knew where Sasuke was.

"Scared?" Sasuke said almost amusedly.

"No!" Konohamaru shot back, realizing that he had Sasuke's shirt and promptly let go of it. He instantly regretted, getting a sense of fear and helplessness being lost in complete darkness and silence. The sound of thunder from above made it's way down in to the blocked passage. "Yes."

"We need some light, I don't want to walk in to walls the whole time I'm down here." Kiba said.

"You wont, this path goes in a strait line." Neji said.

Konohamaru finally noticed something, " We're is Naruto and everyone else?"

Sasuke snorted, "That dobe probably got lost."

"But Iruka-sensei wouldn't." Konohamaru said.

"None of them got lost." Neji told them. "All 6 of them went in the another direction, there was another connection to the passage back that way." Neji would have told them, but there was no way he could say anything out side and expect to be heard. Plus he nearly forgotten it when the lightning hit him.

He felt like he was forgetting a lot of things now, and probably was. Especially since his brain had literally been fried and he couldn't stop his left eye from twitching slightly. And on top of that he could barely move his legs, and his left arm was paralyzed by pain. More importantly, he felt like he had just been cooked.

" From the way we moved off course, this cave must lead north. Is there anything north of us?" Kiba asked

"Nothing if this storm really did what they said it did." Sasuke said.

"So if there's nothing north, why are we going that way?" Konohamaru asked.

"Because there's no other way to go, we're trapped down here by the storm." Sasuke told him.

They walked through the darkness for what seemed like and might just have been hours. Until Sasuke stopped, "Quite." he called back, straining his ears to hear.

He heard the sound of water…a stream of it maybe. And rain….wind. "Is that…outside?" Neji said questioningly, the Byakugan had stopped working by itself a while ago and the twitching also stopped. He could even walk on his own, and he barely felt the pain in his arm.

"The exit to the cave must be close." Sasuke proceeded with some haste even though he couldn't see anything.

That changed quickly, just ahead the darkness cleared away like a cloud moving out of the way of the sun. In fact it looked like sun light and the rain and wind couldn't be heard anymore either.

They could see that the passage surfaced in the form of a storm cellar, but the doors were completely gone. Most likely from the wind having not been closed.

"Sasuke!"

Sasuke looked back to see Kisame with his arm around Konohamaru's neck, holding him up in the air. Kisame charged through the passage, catching Sasuke off guard and ramming through him. "I'd stay and fight but…" Kisame called out in a strained and weakened voice, jumping out of the passage.

Sasuke grunted in anger, climbing to his feet and going after him.

He stopped when he got out side, looking around half for Konohamaru and half in awe. He was surrounded by walls of gray that swirled around in a slow motion. The wind was black and the Chakra was white which made it gray. They weren't out of the storm yet, in fact they we're dead center in the eye of it.

The land was completely destroyed, this used to be a forest but not one trace of a tree could be seen. In fact the ground was just brown and barren, picked clean by the storm, and it was only half way done. Truly terrifying when thinking how the same thing was happening to Konoha right now.

The eye of the storm was about a mile in radius, giving plenty of time and room to peruse Kisame. "I thought he was dead!" Kiba said, reaching back and pulling Neji up to the surface.

They could just barely see Kisame retreating just ahead, obviously injured and the sword on his back was starting to slow him down even more. Even worse, Itachi was right next to him also hurrying. He apparently didn't want to chance this storm but both of them seemed to be headed right in to it.

Close but not quite, at the very edge of the eye was another storm cellar leading to another passage. They slipped inside just before the wall covered it, making them impossible to chase after.

"Damnit!" Sasuke yelled. Who knew how long the storm would take to finally pass, by then Itachi and Kisame would be gone completely…and Konohamaru too.

"We can't do anything about it…." Neji said, unable to believe that his Byakugan failed before he could see Kisame coming.


	12. Chapter 12: Conspiracy in Akatsuki’s ra...

Chapter 12: Conspiracy in Akatsuki's ranks part 1

"Not once, but twice!" Konohamaru shouted, still trying to pry Kisame's grip off his neck. "How did you two get me again!"

"Shut up already." Kisame yelled, pressing his arm against Konohamaru's neck even harder. Konohamaru's back pressed against Kisame's chest, making the boy hit the large wound on his chest and him flinch in pain. It started to bleed again, forcing blood seep out of the robe Kisame wore and on to Konohamaru.

He finally noticed it when it rolled down the side of his face. "Hey…Your bleeding." Konohamaru said in a strained voice, he couldn't stand blood, and to have someone else's blood on him was just too much.

Kisame was forced to let go of Konohamaru. "Itachi, take the kid." He pushed him towards Itachi, who immediately had a firm grip on Konohamaru's hand before he could think of getting away. Kisame took off the robe, having a pair of black pants on underneath with no shirt, it had been burned off for the most part. A large gash was spread diagonally across his chest, starting just under his shoulder and spreading in-between his nipples to his side.

Kisame's whole chest was covered in blood, running down his pants and turning most of the top down to the knees a dark red color. Just the sight of it made Konohamaru wince, it was no wonder why Kisame was slower then before, it was a miracle he was still standing. Konohamaru had to take notice of how tough he was, and he would be sure to take that in account when he tried to escape.

"So where are you taking me?" Konohamaru asked, Itachi notice that he was less afraid then last time.

"Village of the wind." Itachi said plainly, they had a long way to go and he didn't want to knock him out, the Sharingan was to much trouble for a simple matter, and he could take a considerable amount of annoyment. Konohamaru wasn't annoying him yet, he might as well answer a few questions. "We were to abduct you, Those were the orders given to us by the higher Echelons of our organization."

Konohamaru wiped away a drop of water that fell from his hair. "Organization?…It must be the one Sasuke told me about, Akatsuki right?"

"Yes."

"Why do you need me?"

"Remember that technique you did in the forest, tell me how you did it."

Now Konohamaru was confused. "You took me just to find that out? That's something I came up with off the top of my head when…All of that Chakra came out of nowhere…" Now he was starting to get it, why else would they want him. "You want the Chakra."

"Your smarter then you look." Kisame said, wrapping the robe around his body again and catching up with Itachi.

Konohamaru looked back at him, "Hey!"

After an hour or so, Konohamaru started to notice that the passage was getting hotter. It was no surprise since they had been going down hill the whole time, which was most likely faster then just going strait. It started to get to him, he'd strained himself too much in one day with a still open head wound.

His vision started to blur, and he couldn't get anything intelligible out of his mouth because his throat was unbelievably dry. Much dryer then the heat could have possibly caused in such a short amount of time.

Itachi looked back at him when he felt the boy stop, his eyes were wonton and dazed, his grip on Itachi's hand was lose. Finally Konohamaru just collapsed, silently falling to the ground and losing consciousness.

Konohamaru awoke in completely different conditions. Instead of the dry, hot air and the strong smell and feel of heat from the passage. There was a cool breeze and a warm 70 degrees causing the sent of vanilla to rise to his nose. He opened his eyes and saw a ground completely different from the rock floors he'd last seen.

With a small groan Konohamaru lifted his head and looked around, finding that he was over Itachi's shoulder and that vanilla like scent was coming from him. "What happened?"

"You passed out." Itachi said in a low voice. Konohamaru instinctively lifted his hand to the wound and found that his goggles had been removed from over his bandages.

"We must be here then…" Konohamaru said to himself as Itachi lifted him from over his shoulder and set him down. Konohamaru looked around the Wind village, he could easily tell that it was larger then Konoha…was. 'Whoa.' He suddenly wanted to look around, he wanted to see everything.

Though he knew he wouldn't be able to, he couldn't stop the excitement from building, it showed on his face when he kept looking from side to side and amazement of the prosperous village. Kisame looked at him and sighed, " Calm down, don't make me cut something off."

Konohamaru sent a glare back at him, only getting an amused laughed from Kisame.

Konohamaru got to see a small part of the city, but it left him completely unsatisfied and anxious to see more.

He was so busy looking around he almost didn't notice that Itachi and Kisame had lead him someplace specific. He was now standing in front of a house and Itachi was unlocking the front door. Kisame placed his hand on Konohamaru's shoulder and pushed him lightly inside.

Konohamaru looked around finding nothing like he was expecting. He figured with someone like Kisame staying here it'd be messy at the lest. He steeped into the living room and looked around finding that it was the complete opposite. The floors were hardwood so shiny that he could see himself in them, white walls and studio lights hanging from the ceiling.

Konohamaru found himself standing under a balcony that served as a hallway for the second floor with a spiral staircase on the wall to the left of him. The living room was finished by a black leather couch with two matching chairs on each side, in-between each chair and the couch was a glass table. All surrounding an oak coffee table.

The living room broke off into the kitchen and Konohamaru could see two refrigerators (…..?), and everything was black, but other then that nothing out of the ordinary. "This place is so cool!" Konohamaru shouted.

But the next thing he knew, he was tied up on the couch. "Hey!" He shouted, but the two ignored him.

"You were carrying the money, order something to eat." Itachi said, taking off his robe and laying it neatly on the chair. He was wearing an outfit similar to Sasuke's black one, only the collar wasn't so wide and there was a white vest over it. Which he promptly unzipped and laid next to his robe.

"Uh…well when that lighting hit me…" Kisame reached into his pocket and pulled out a black piece of paper that used to be money. The burnt paper crumbled when Kisame gave it a small blow, showing his point better then he could describe.

Itachi smirked, "Looks like your cooking." He said, getting an annoyed look from Kisame before walking awake. Kisame sighed and shook his head.

"Where's that towel…" He looked at the bloody wound on his chest and then around the room for a white towel he knew he saw when he walked in to the door.

Konohamaru looked at the coffee table, seeing what he was looking for was under it. "It's under the table." He said plainly, letting is head fall back on couch and closing his eye. Kisame looked at him for a second, then reached under the table and picked up the table.

Konohamaru was awakened by something that smelt absolutely delicious. He felt his mouth watering, forcing him to awaken before he started drooling. He tilted his head toward the kitchen, and saw Kisame standing in front of the stove. "I must be hallucinating….I can't be seeing this." Konohamaru contemplated the thought it wasn't really Kisame, but he saw that he was bandaged and had changed clothes.

Konohamaru closed his eyes, feeling his stomach rumbling. He hadn't eaten anything for a long while, around a day and a half. If he didn't get any of that food soon he was going to lose his mind. He almost lost it now when he smelt the delicious smell coming closer. It was right. Under. His. Noise

He opened eyes and saw a plate of curry and a bowl of ramen hanging in his face. He reached out and tried to bite it, or grab the plate with his teeth, but it was quickly snatched away. Followed by a laugh from Kisame who was holding the food in front of him. "Man I love messing with this kid."

Konohamaru tried to grab the plate again when he was of guard, but Kisame raised it above his head and laughed harder. "Not funny." Konohamaru said with a glare, getting one last chuckle out of Kisame before he put down the food and untied the boy.

"Your untying me? Aren't you afraid I'll run?" Konohamaru asked, stretching his arms a little.

Kisame smirked impishly, "If you try I'll cut you legs off."

Konohamaru looked at him, he knew Kisame was serous, but he wasn't exactly worried about the threat. This was the same person that had just cooked this…amazing smelling food that was sitting in front of him.

Itachi came from upstairs, sitting in the chair opposite Kisame. "Smells good." He looked over at Konohamaru who was practically in-haling the food. He could only smile in small amusement and look over at Kisame, who was watching the boy with a raised eye brow and a slightly open mouth. "I think he likes it."

Konohamaru nearly slammed the empty bowl on the table. "More!"

Kisame looked at him and at the bowl. "Alright, let's see how much you can eat."

Itachi sat back in the chair with his arms folded, a lazy gaze on Konohamaru who was digging through bowl number 10 of his Raman and bowl number 4 of his curry. It seemed Kisame really wanted to see how much Konohamaru could eat

"More!"

Kisame growled and set a pot down in front of him that was almost as large as the boy himself. "Go for it."

Konohamaru lifted the pot and began spooning the Raman in to his mouth. "It's better then Ichiraku's!" He said halfway through.

Kisame knelt down next to Konohamaru and poked his stomach, "You just ate your body weight in Raman…Is that even possible?" Kisame looked up at Konohamaru who set the pot down on the table, only this time he didn't ask for more.

On closer look they could see he had fallen asleep just that quickly.

"Done playing with him?" Itachi asked, getting out of his seat and walking toward the stairway.

"Too bad what we have to do to him tomorrow, He was fun to mess with." Kisame smiled happily as he followed Itachi, wrapping his arms around his waist giving him a small kiss on the neck.

Sasuke was the first to emerge from the passage way, finding himself in an open field full of rolling hills. He turned around to see that he was over looking the Village of the Wind, one untouched by the storm.

Kiba lifted Neji to the top though the other boy protested it, then jumped up himself. "Whoa, we'll never find them in there." Kiba said, getting a glare from Sasuke.

"If we ask enough people." Neji dusted himself off and yawned, he was ready to rest after 2 strait hours of walking, half of that being uphill.

"What do we do now?" Kiba asked.

"We find Konohamaru, I'm sure someone saw them." Sasuke sat down and looked over the large village… they had a lot of ground to cover…

"Should we go now or rest here first?" Kiba asked, trying to figure out how long he'd been on his feet. From when they went to search in the forest for Konohamaru until now, it had to be 12 hours at the lest.


	13. Chapter 13: Conspiracy in Akatsuki’s ra...

Chapter 13: Conspiracy in Akatsuki's ranks part 2

"That lightning, I think it did something to me…" Kisame said, walking down the stairway sleepily, rubbing his head.

"What do you mean?" Itachi pulled his shirt on to him, slipping his vest over it.

"I'm not sure, I'm seeing things…and I feel like I'm forgetting something, something important." Kisame shrugged. "So, what's the next step?" Kisame walked in the living room and looking over towards Konohamaru sleep peacefully couch. He seemed calm the whole time, as if he wasn't worried about what would happen to him.

Itachi sat down on the chair opposite Kisame, looking up at the clock. It was 6:30 in the morning, and the city outside showed it. "I'm not sure, I haven't heard from anyone lately and it's starting to get suspicious."

"We should find Lewis then, he should still be somewhere around here…But why can't we just contact Headquarters directly?" Kisame asked.

"I've tried." Itachi sat back and folded his arms, "Well if we must, I'll call him." He stood up, walking up stairs while Kisame went to the kitchen to start on breakfast.

'Damn storm! I knew Itachi should have carried the money, we better get the other half of it when this is all over.' Kisame mumbled to himself, looking in the refrigerator on the left.

Itachi returned 20 minutes later, fully dressed except for his robe and a phone under his arm.

Konohamaru opened one eye, awakened by the sent of Kisame's cooking, watching an oblivious Itachi sit the phone down on the table and plug it in. "Kisame."

Kisame emerged from the kitchen, obviously annoyed from the cooking. "Did you get him?"

Itachi pressed the speakerphone button, making the sound of ringing roam through the air. He glanced over at Konohamaru, still appearing to be sleep. "You don't have to fake it anymore."

Konohamaru opened his eyes, looking immediately toward Itachi who was focused on the phone. "How…did you know?" Konohamaru sat up, looking at Itachi questingly. He didn't get an answer though.

"Yes? Who is this?"

Some one finally answered the phone, it was Lewis, the one they were looking for. He was a higher authority in Akatsuki, though he wasn't stronger then Itachi and Kisame, he was the one that gave them most of their training and initiated them.

"Lewis? This is-" Kisame was cut off by a surprised gasp on the other end of the line.

"Hoshigaki Kisame! Your alive?" Lewis said with a shocked voice.

"What the hell? Why wouldn't I be?" Kisame asked.

"I heard you and Uchida Itachi were killed in the storm around the Fire Country."

"Ho-" Kisame stopped when he saw Itachi signal him to wait.

"When did you hear this?" Itachi asked

"10 days ago."

Itachi and Kisame looked at each other, they hadn't even received their mission 10 days ago. How could he had heard they were dead?

"Who told you this?" Itachi asked.

"Headquarters, a message was sent out to all members about it or they heard it one way or another." Lewis told them, making this whole situation extremely suspicious now. "Listen carefully, if your alive then you might be in danger. We can't talk over the phone, we need to meet in person. Where are you now?"

"My house, you know where that is don't you?" Itachi asked

"Right now I'm in the Ice Village, You have to get here now." Lewis said urgently.

"Ice village? Why would you be there?" Kisame asked.

"There's no time for that. Meet me at City hall around tomorrow noon, I'll-"

The phone line went dead in the middle of his sentence.

"What the hell?" Kisame walked over to the phone and hung up, trying to get a dial tone. "It was cut from our side….?"

The door was blasted open, sending it flying towards the couch, striking Konohamaru in the back of his head and knocked him to the ground. "Aww…" Konohamaru held his head, stifling a moan of pain from the blow.

Kisame reached down and pick him up by his shirt collar, pulling him out of the way of a stray shrunken then tilling his head to avoid another one.

A man jumped through the door way, a hunter-nin with a forehead protector from the lighting village that had a line through the insignia. More importantly he had and Akatsuki ring.

Kisame reached over and tried to get his sword laying against the wall, but two Shrunkens flew outward from the smoke filled doorway in to his sleeve, pinning his arm to the wall. Before he could reach over and pull them out, two more Shrunken pinned his other arm down.

A Kunai from the quick ninja came flying at his head, Kisame held his head to the side and avoided it, breaking free from his holds on the wall.

Itachi rushed toward the hunter, throwing a punch at him. The ninja took a step back and grabbed his arm, tossing him over his shoulder in to the wall. Itachi flipped, kicking off the wall and diving toward the hunter. The nin fell back, letting Itachi fly over him.

The hunter pulled another kunai from under his sleeve, tossing it through couch at Konohamaru. Kisame grabbed him again, tossing him up in to the second floor balcony and out of range. Then he knocked the Kunai away with his Samehada.

"Alright, now that the kid is out of the way, let's get down to business." Kisame said, drawing his sword back and tossing at the hunter. It hooked him by the back of his shirt and burred itself in the wall, trapping him there.

Konohamaru watched from above, seeing how the two had quickly gained the upper hand and the Ninja was still barely managing to stay alive by running and evading. Konohamaru heard a sound behind him and felt a breeze blow past him.

He turned around in time to see another hunter-nin coming through the window, and apparently hadn't noticed Konohamaru yet. 'I don't have any weapons, I'll never beat him…' Konohamaru quickly jumped behind a wall, hearing his quick footsteps coming closer. The man ran right past him, jumping over the railing and towards the living room.

Konohamaru jumped after, hearing a third hunter coming through the same window. He may have gotten lucky and evaded one, but he'd hide from two of them. Konohamaru landed on his back, wrapping his arms around his neck. 'I hope all that practice was worth it, here goes nothing..'

Konohamaru pulled back abruptly, taking the man back with him so that he was in a laying position. He let go of his neck and pushed down on the Ninja's shoulders so that he could push himself upwards, driving the hunter into the ground and leaving a small imprint where he landed.

Finally Konohamaru sent both feet in to the man's face in a surprisingly effective blow, using it to kick off of him and jumping in to the air. Konohamaru curled in to a ball and began flipping, just barely missing a Kunai targeted at him, and landing ungracefully on his feet.

"I actually did it!" Konohamaru said with surprise in his voice, he almost forgot he was in the middle of a fight and ended up getting kicked in the chest by the same Ninja he'd just attacked. Konohamaru groaned in pain, hunching involuntarily from the blow. The Ninja lifted a kunai, about to drive it down in to Konohamaru when Kisame grabbed his hand.

Kisame sent a kick over Konohamaru and in to the in hunter's stomach, then used his grip on them arm to throw him head into the wall. Picking a Kunai off the ground, he turned around and threw it, watching it landing to the hunter-nin's back.

"Is that all of them?" Kisame asked, looking around at the 3 dead bodies.

Itachi nodded, "Did headquarters really send them to assassinate us?"

"I have a question." Konohamaru stumbled to his feet, holding his chest were he was sure there was a bruise. "Why would they tell everyone in Akatsuki you were dead? Aren't you suppose to be working with them?"

Konohamaru was much smarter then he looked, he listened to every detail of what was said when it was important, and this was important. "The kid's right, there was no point of us going to get him. They just wanted us in the path of the storm." Kisame said angrily.

"If the organization want's us dead, then we have to get away from here now." Itachi picked his robe off the chair and wrapped it around himself. "We go see Lewis. He obviously knows more about this then we do."

Kisame looked at Konohamaru, "What about the kid?"

"Take him with us, we may need him later." Itachi said.

Kisame silently cursed to himself, "He's just going to slow us down."

Itachi raised and eyebrow, "If you can't handle it-"

"I didn't say that."

Itachi gave him a small nod and walked toward the door, checking over what he had, which was nothing more then a few kunai and a sword on his back under his robe. It would be enough, just encase anyone tried to attack him on his way.

"Well, it looks like your coming with us." Kisame grabbed his Samehada and strapped it on to his back

"What's…going to happen to me?" Konohamaru asked, looking up at him worriedly. He wasn't scared before for some reason, but now that all this has happened...

"I don't know, come on we don't have time to waste unless you want to end up dead." Kisame said, watching Konohamaru stiffen.

Kisame lead him out of he house and jumped on to the next roof top right behind Itachi. Kisame's steps were much stronger, carrying him much farther then Konohamaru who was struggling to stay close to him.

Kisame growled turning back and grabbing him by the arm. "Come on!"

"What's the big rush?" Konohamaru asked, trying to keep up with the pace Kisame was pulling.

"Don't be stupid! There's a reason Akatsuki wants us dead, they must not be too happy to see we're not. If we don't get out of here now they'll kill us."

"But your strong, can't you guys stop them?"

"You are such an idiot Brat, there are people in Akatsuki that are stronger then us."

Konohamaru was really worried now, what was he in the middle of?

Kisame grew annoyed of pulling him, so he lifted him on to his back. It was much faster, and what they needed right now was speed.

After 2 hours or so they were a good distance away for the village of the Wind, stopping at an inn a few miles away.

"I guess, Konoha really is gone." Konohamaru said with a sigh depression, he'd thought that the Leaf wouldn't survive considering that the Cloud, Mist and Water villages were destroyed …but actually hearing it had happened…

The boy sat with his knees drawn up into his arms, burying his face into his lap. He felt a few tears fall despite is best effort to hold them back, he couldn't let Itachi and Kisame see him cry.

"Quit whining about it." Kisame said, taking off his robe and discarding it on a chair nearby.

Konohamaru felt himself getting angry at his words, "How can you say that! That was my home!" He shouted, lifting his head before he realized it. Luckily neither Itachi and Kisame were looking at him so he had time to wipe away any stray tears an put on a strait face. Seeing that wouldn't be enough, Konohamaru pulled down his goggles over his eyes making the bandages visible once again.

"Home? Whatever." Kisame snorted, lifting his black shirt off his body and tossing near the robe. He didn't sound as sure of himself as he usually did when he said this, almost as if he was distracted. Something was nagging at him in the back of his mind…like he was forgetting something again.

Konohamaru buried his face into his lap again, fighting desperately to hold back the sobs that tore at his throat trying to get free. It was hard…everything was just happening so fast. First his grandfather died, then all of this! He couldn't take it-

"It is a shame though." Itachi said, lifting himself off the bed and walking past Konohamaru. "That this is finally how the Leaf meets it's end."

"What? Are you sad about it?" Konohamaru said in a angry tone.

"Not sad, disheartened somewhat." Itachi said, placing what equipment he had on the dresser. Kisame didn't seem to have a comment for this, he just watched Itachi wondering where he was going with this.

"I guess this is really it, I have nowhere to go… The only thing I had left was Sasuke."

Both of them turned towards Konohamaru questioningly. But he didn't notice, the thought of losing Sasuke was more then he could handle. A small sob escaped along with a stream of tears that ran under his goggles as the boy still tried futilely to contain himself.

Kisame looked at Itachi with a shrug, Sasuke…and Konohamaru? This was unexpected but it could work to Itachi's advantage, it in fact already was and he didn't even realize it.

Another sob broke out of the boy, until they came freely and Konohamaru finally let himself cry quietly. He sub-consciously curled deeper into a ball, pushing himself deeper into the corner he was already in.

This was just depressing to watch, so Kisame didn't. He ignored Konohamaru for the moment, but finding it nearly impossibly not to turn towards the boy. This was either extremely annoying, or making him feel sorry for Konohamaru, Kisame hadn't decided yet.

"Hey stop crying, it won't change anything."

"Your…right. I know it wont…But I can't seem to stop…" Konohamaru curled deeper, feeling his body shaking slightly. It hurt to much, this sadness was consuming. He wanted to yell and scream…but he couldn't let himself.

Itachi placed a hand on his back, making Konohamaru lift his had and look back. He was extremely thankful that his goggles were down at the moment. Itachi reached down and lifted them of his eyes, looking into the brown orbs clouded by tears and effectively making Konohamaru feel even worse.

"Your not completely alone. Sasuke is alive, can't you feel it?" Itachi said. "

Konohamaru looked up at him, scrambling to wipe his eyes. "What do you mean?"

Itachi smirked, looking down in to Konohamaru's eyes using Mange Sharingan. Just as everything went black and he could feel that unique feeling of Itachi's Charka, Konohamaru started to feel Sasuke's rising up with in him. Surrounding his body and blocking Itachi.

'Sas-Sasuke?' Konohamaru called out.

'Konohamaru?' He heard Sasuke's surprised voice through the connection…he was alive.

Before he could get more in with Sasuke, Itachi stopped using Sharingan making Sasuke's Charka fade. "You haven't lost everything yet." Itachi removed his hand from Konohamaru's back.

"…He…is still there?……Thank you." Konohamaru sat with his eyes wide and his mind a little clearer. He knew he had to get back to Sasuke… But he had to find out where he was first.

Kisame sat on one edge of the bed watching Konohamaru stare at the wall. "Sure that was a good idea? You just gave him a reason to run, that's going to make things harder of you think we can use him."

"Don't worry, he wont run."

"How do you know?"

"Trust me, he wont."

Sasuke kicked the door open to Itachi's house, looking around alertly as he walking in to the living room. "What the hell happen here?"

"It looks like some hunter-nins attacked…" Neji said, knelling down by one of the bodies. He'd definitely been hit by a large sharp object, and the wound looked like it had been shaved instead of directly cut. This was defiantly the work of Kisame's Samehada.

"Wait…." Neji noticed the ring, a clear symbol of Akatsuki.

"We're to late, they already left while ago." Kiba said, sitting against the wall with a sleeping Akamaru in his lap.

They had too large of a lead ahead of them and Sasuke was realizing that, no matter how fast they went they'd already lost to much time from the storm and tracking this place dow. He punched the wall in anger "Damnit!"

"This is strange, these were men from Akatsuki… They clearly perused Itachi and Kisame and initiated the fight, but why would hunters from there own organization try to kill them?" Neji said, holding up the ring and examining it closely.

"What ever the reason it's probably why the left in such a hurry…I may still be able to track them though, there's a blood trail and they're probably still wounded from the fight." Kiba lifted himself off the ground, looking at the small almost non-existent trail that lead out the door. He could tell Itachi, Konohamaru and Kisame were the only ones that left here alive so it would have to be one of them that left it behind.

It was most likely from Kisame because of his chest wound from the previous lighting strike was re-opened in the fight. If Kiba got lucky he could follow the scent, there was sure to be more blood enough for him to pursue

"Alright, we'll follow it as long as we can then rest. I know both of you are tired and you've been working hard." Sasuke said, noticing once again that it felt strangely talking this way. But he was right, they had followed him this far and didn't complain. If he didn't have them, he never would have made it this far.

Kiba stretched his arms "Sounds good to me, let's go."


	14. Chapter 14: Conspiracy in Akatsuki’s ra...

Chapter 14: Conspiracy in Akatsuki's ranks part 3

Kisame woke up to find that Konohamaru hadn't ran and was still in the same corner he was in last night. "Hn. Whatever."

It wasn't long before they reached the Ice Village, and they could finally relax knowing that they were safely out of range from Akatsuki's reach, at lest for now.

"Man….I'm freezing." Konohamaru said, shaking some snow out of his head and holding his arms.

"What'd you expect?" Kisame asked annoyedly.

"It's not like I had time to prepare, I was kidnapped!" The boy shot back, tightening his scarf and extremely happy that he had at lest one warm thing on him.

"Quit winning." Kisame said firmly, glancing back at Konohamaru who was staring at the ground angrily. With an annoyed sigh he pulled off his robe and wrapped it around a surprised Konohamaru.

"Huh?"

"I got sick of hearing you." Kisame said, getting a questioning look from Itachi. Kisame only shook his head and Itachi smirked.

After a few minutes of silence, a question at the back of Konohamaru's mind resurfaced. "When you said you wanted my Chakra…is it really that strong?"

Itachi nodded, "It is abnormally high, has it always been like that?"

"No…it started when I got this." Konohamaru pointed to the wound on the back of his head.

"How did you get it."

"I fell on to this really big chunk of wood."

Kisame snorted, "Why doesn't that surprise me?"

Konohamaru didn't take offense to his comment, he was fully aware of his sometimes crumbly nature and did most of his training on balance. "How did you two get so strong?"

Itachi glanced back at him again, usually when someone asked him this question he ignored it. Mainly because they thought it was some easy path to becoming strong and they wanted it, but Konohamaru had learned that there wasn't any shortcuts and asked seriously. For that Itachi bothered to answer it.

"Years of study and training." Itachi told him.

"I bet you guys know a lot of really cool Taijutsus and stuff like that. Can you train me?" Konohamaru asked.

Kisame laughed, and interesting thought brewing in his head. "You know, I think I will." He said with a small smirk.

Itachi looked over at him, "Kisame."

He waved his hands discardingly, "Don't worry, I won't kill him." Itachi knew how Kisame loved to mess with Konohamaru, but something like this could get out of hand easily. Itachi shook his head and sighed, he just had to make sure he watched it closely if Kisame actually did decide to go through with his 'training.'

Konohamaru grinned excitedly, he couldn't wait! He was so wrapped up in thinking about it that he didn't notice Itachi had stopped and ran in to him, they were apparently there already. Peaking from behind his leg, the boy could see a large building, about 3 stories tall and wide enough to hold a 100 rooms.

Itachi looked around carefully, "I'll look around out here, go see if he's inside."

Kisame nodded and grabbed Konohamaru's hand. "Why do I have to go with you?" He asked, know that he was warm he would have elected to stay with Itachi.

"Because your wearing my clothes, now come on." Kisame gave him a small nudge to speed him up and Konohamaru silently followed him into the building, clinching a Kunai he'd taken from the fight. "What are you planning to do with that?"

Konohamaru looked up, a little surprised that he had noticed the subtle movement. "This is just making me nervous, it's not like I was trying to use it on you." He said.

"No, your not that stupid." Kisame shrugged, opening the glass doors to the building and waiting until Konohamaru was through before letting it close.

"Hey! I'm not afraid of you." Konohamaru said, stopping to look around the lobby, It was large, the doorway had a red carpet leading to a counter that ran from wall to wall. On both sides of the room were staircases that lead to the next floor then spiraled to the third. As well as one more staircase behind the counter that wasn't clear on where it led.

Kisame sat down in a chair facing the door, looking around for anyone that could be Lewis. "Do you know what the guy looks like?" Konohamaru asked.

One thing that Kisame realized he forgotten on account of the lighting strike. "I….don't remember….?"

"Then how are you going to find him?"

"I figure it out…see, that could be him right there." Kisame looked towards a man walking in the door, he had hair similar to Kisame's and was wearing a ninja uniform with a mist headband. He looking at them and obviously walking in there direction.

"Excuse me, have I seen you somewhere before." They could tell by his voice that this wasn't the person they were looking for.

"I don't know, have you?" Kisame asked, a dangerous undertone to his words.

The man shook his head, "Nah, wrong person, sorry." He walked away, Konohamaru turning to watched him leave, noticing that he stopped to talk to someone on his way up one of the stairwells. "I have what I need, tell everyone to move in."

Konohamaru raised an eyebrow, 'Huh? What did that mean?' The boy turned back around and looked toward Kisame, who was watching another man that was looking at them specifically. He was wearing a black suit with a trench coat over it and matching hat, he smirked a little when he saw them.

"Kisame-" Konohamaru didn't get a chance to tell him what the man said because Kisame was completely sure this was Lewis and was standing to meet him.

"Are you Lewis." Kisame asked, muttering "Damn I hope so." to himself right after.

The man nodded, lifting his left hand to his right wrist.

"It's a trap!" Konohamaru yelled, diving on to Kisame and attempting to push him out of the way. Kisame immediately looked up, moving to the side before he even had him in his vision. A Kunai drawn from the man's wrist flew past his head while Kisame reached down into Konohamaru's pocket and pulled out the knife that resided there.

Kisame tossed at the man, striking him in the hand as he attempted to pull another Kunai from the holder under his coat. Kisame put an end to that quickly, pulling his Samehada of his back and slicing across the man's chest.

Konohamaru flinched at the sight, looking past the dead man and seeing Hunter-Nin's coming from outside the front door. With out another thought, Konohamaru reached into the man's jacket and pulled the black Kunai holder out.

A shrunken with an explosive tag attached flew down from the ceiling and narrowly missed Konohamaru's foot. Both of the looked up to see more Hunter-nin's coming from the windows. "Oh shit! Come on!" Kisame pulled Konohamaru's arm abruptly, hearing the tag explode behind them.

Kisame pushed Konohamaru's head down to avoid another kunai, but within seconds a furry of them were flying towards them. With a quick glance back Kisame counted about 20 of them, no way in hell he was standing against them. "Go for the counter!" Kisame yelled.

Kisame dived over the counter in the back of the room, watching Konohamaru do the same and barely landing on his feet this time. He held the boy down low as possible as they headed for the steps a few feet away. Those feet seemed like miles, Kunais and Shrunkens blasted through the wood serving as their cover. Killing everyone else on the floor who hadn't taken cover, a few of them striking Kisame in the side.

With out hesitation he pulled Konohamaru back, keeping him to his side and using himself as a shield for anything that may hit. The screams and cries were defining, drowned out by another explosive tag detonating behind them, so close that it burned Konohamaru on his back. But he still managed to make it to the stairway, running up in a full sprint to the top at the third floor.

As soon as the got to the end, Kisame pulled Konohamaru against the wall. With heavy breaths he surveyed the area, noticing that he hallway was shaped like a 'T'. The stairway they stood above was right next to two other stairways, which Kisame could see shadow's approaching in both.

"Oh Damn!" Kisame sighed tiredly, strapping his sword to his back again and pulling the 4 Shrunkens that had landed in his left side. "I got four of these left, you have a whole case. Make your self use full and take that other staircase, Just point an throw. On three." Kisame said, getting a hasty nod from Konohamaru.

They heard a soft sound, as if something had just been dropped. 5 explosive tags wrapped together slid from the stairway behind them. "To hell with it, run for you life!" Kisame shouted, darting down the hallway ahead of them.

Two doors lay on both sides of the narrow corridor, Konohamaru checked the left while Kisame checked the right. "It's locked!"

They didn't have time to try and break them down because the tags exploded, a wall of flames cascading down the hall towards them. Kisame once again grabbed Konohamaru's hand and ran away from the flames toward a window.

"Are you crazy! " Konohamaru shouted.

Kisame took the holder out of his hand, lifting the boy on to his back and diving out of the window. A wall of flames bursting out of the building and burning at there backs.

Kisame rolled, shielding Konohamaru from the flames while doing the hand seals to an unknown Jutsu.

Konohamaru looked down and immediately stared holding his breath, seeing a pillar of water rising from the snowy ground below them to stop there decent. But thing's got worse, that wasn't ground under them, it was ice, then ice over a lake. Konohamaru got the air pushed out of his lungs when he felt Kisame's weight knocked into him against the ice right before it cracked and sent them into the lake below.

Konohamaru struggled furiously, with no air in his lungs and the burning cold from the freezing water. And the fact that he was on the verge of passing out from the blow to the head. Just as his body involuntarily gasped for air, he felt himself being pulled up and his lungs being fill with air instead of water.

"Kisame!" Konohamaru managed to force out, fighting to stay consciences. Kisame laid him over his shoulder and jumped off the ice on to more stable ground. Then laid Konohamaru on the ground, giving him a light….hard slap to the face.

"Stay with me kid, I didn't drag you out of that water for you to go half dead on me." Kisame growled, shaking Konohamaru by his shirt collar when he saw the boy's eyes rolling to the back of his head.

He was so disoriented that he didn't know which way was up, "Kisame…" Konohamaru said weakly, grabbing on to Kisame's arm and holding it tightly.

Kisame looked down at him confusedly, they didn't have time to wait here. With a sigh he lifted Konohamaru up, letting the boy rest his head on his shoulder before heading around to the front of the building.

Itachi was waiting for him, obviously having to deal with a few problems himself by the dead hunters nearby. "What happened to him?"

"Tell you later, first we have to get the hell out of here!" Kisame was just about to jump when a man ran in front of them.

"Come on, follow me!" He was wearing a white suit with a black trench coat over it along with an Akatsuki ring on a chain around his neck.

"Lewis?" Kisame asked, finally recognizing his voice.

"Yes, now that we've established that I'd prefer not to stay and fight a team of hunters. Let's go, now!" The man was so blunt that he'd have to be from Akatsuki to say that to Itachi and Kisame.


	15. Chapter 15: Conspiracy in Akatsuki’s ra...

Chapter 15: Conspiracy in Akatsuki's ranks part 4

Sasuke pushed his way to the front of the crowd surrounding city hall, only to find that a lot of smoke was rising out of it. "Is this the place?"

Neji shook his head, "It was the place at lest…." He knelt down next to the body of a hunter-nin laying outside. He was from the lighting village just as the other's back at Itachi's house, all of Akatsuki's hunters seemed to be from there. "He died recently, anywhere in a half hour range."

Sasuke sighed, "So we're close."

"Yes, as soon as Kiba finds out what direction they went we can go…" Neji looked at the man again. "He was also from Akatsuki, I'm completely sure Itachi and Kisame's organization wants them dead."

"So what dose all of this have to do with Konohamaru?" Sasuke asked, walking through the crowd with Neji following behind.

"Nothing, none of this has any ties to Konohamaru. From what I can tell the only reason for telling Itachi and Kisame to take Konohamaru was to get them in the path of the storm. But that attempt to kill them clearly failed." Neji sat down on a bench next to Sasuke, resting his head in his hands while he thought.

"This is very dangerous, we're dealing with people stronger then your brother."

"They can have him, I wanna know why they picked Konohamaru out of everyone in Konoha. This couldn't have been random."

"…Konohamaru is…was the Hokage's grandson. Who better to take then the leader of the village in the path of the worst storm in history's only living relative when the leader is dead if you want Itachi and Kisame to be in the path of the storm with out getting suspicious."

Sasuke raised an eyebrow and looked at Neji. "Wow, Simple." he said sarcastically. "I'm not even sure of you know what you just said."

Kiba emerged from his search with Akamaru at his heals, "I got something. 3 pairs of footprints, one Konohamaru's size, met and follow a forth set of prints. I found them over by the lake on the other side of the building."

Konohamaru had become oriented again after almost blacking out a few times. He was on his feet and able to walk now, once again struggling to keep up with the other 3's steps across the roof tops of the city.

"We jumped out of a exploding building!" Konohamaru said hastily.

"Yes that's very exciting and tomorrow we go to the zoo." Lewis said sarcastically

"Your Lewis?" Kisame asked.

"Who else would I be?" Lewis pulled a "Here, make sure no one's following us." pulled a holder out of his coat that was filled with Shrunkens and tossed it abruptly back to Itachi.

"You help." Lewis pulled another out and gave it to Kisame.

"Damn old man, how many of those thing you got?" Kisame asked.

"One shoulder, one hip and one next to Mr. Lewis. Most pat downs don't reveal it because most agents are often reluctant to feel up another man's groin. Any other questions?" Lewis asked.

Kisame raised an eyebrow, "Yeah, what's the weather like on your world?"

Lewis glanced back at Konohamaru, "If you want me to talk in front of him you may have to kill him later."

"Huh? What!" Konohamaru almost stumbled in surprise but lost speed trying to keep his balance. Itachi saw he obviously couldn't keep up and it was a miracle he hadn't fallen yet, he stopped and lifted the boy on to his back.

"No." Itachi said plainly.

"Fine I'll do it." Lewis said with a sigh, getting fierce looks from both Kisame and Itachi

"No one's killing the kid." Kisame said firmly, surprising Konohamaru a little considering how little care of his life he had when they started. "Now what the hell is going on?"

"As you may have realized Akatsuki wants you dead, the reasons aren't clear but if you give me some details I can piece it together." Lewis said, "First we need to get away from this place."

They stopped someplace relatively safe outside the city near a forest, it was a small clearing near a road. Itachi knelt down and Konohamaru jumped off his back, "Thank you." The boy said reluctantly, getting a small discarding nod from Itachi.

"Alright, tell me what's happened so far, I should be able to tell you why they want you dead then." Lewis said.

That's when Konohamaru notice something. "Wait a minute… You're the only person they called, I was right there when they did it."

Lewis looked down at him annoyedly. "What are you talking about?"

Konohamaru pointed an accusing finger at him, "If you're the only person they talked to, how did all of those Hunter-nins know where we were going to be?" it was times like this when Konohamaru surprised everyone including himself.

Kisame and Itachi looked up at him, "He's right, you must have told them where we were going to be." Kisame pulled his sword off his back and held it outward towards Lewis.

"What? That's preposterous!" Lewis said in his defense.

"So they tapped your phone?" Itachi asked, slowly advancing toward Lewis.

"It's possible, you must stop jumping to conclusions." Lewis said, right before Kisame sent a kick to his stomach and knocked him to the ground. Lewis tried to strike back with a punch but Kisame grabbed his arm, sending a sharp chop to his neck and knocking him unconscious.

"I have to hand it to you kid, that was pretty smart thinking." Kisame said, checking into Lewis's pockets for anything useful. All he found was a slip of paper with a phone number and a name. "Who the hell is J. Haijari…?"

"The C.O. who gave us this mission." Itachi explained, looking over the phone number.

"Let me see!" Konohamaru asked, Itachi gave it to him since he was about to discard it anyway.

"Hey.. Did you hear that?" Kisame asked, looking around questioningly, he was sure he'd heard something.

"Bind No Jutsu!"

All three of them turned around to see a man…the same man from the train station from the mist village. And he was holding a thin red string that connected to Konohamaru's neck. "Move and I kill the kid-"

'Why didn't I notice him coming…he must have been using a concealing Jutsu.' Itachi though to himself, this man must have been an expert at Itachi's level or above. And apparently he wasn't finished yet.

"And if that's not an incentive, there's enough shinobi here to take both of you down easily." As if on cue, hunter-nin's started coming from all sides, surrounding them completely with numbers of 35 or so. "And if you even think about reaching for something-"

The man pulled the string lightly and Konohamaru screamed in pain, it didn't just hurt in his neck but his whole body was paralyzed with pain. "You'll hear a lot of this before you die."

Kisame looked back towards Itachi, "What do we do?"

"We can't fight against this many…if we didn't have Konohamaru we could try at lest." Itachi sighed.

"So we just stand here and get captured?"

"…."

The man eased up on Konohamaru, letting him fall to his knees. The man lifted him up by his head, getting a strong glare from the boy before he was knocked out with a sharp knee to the stomach. "Go ahead and use the Sleep Jutsu."

All of the hunters began to do hand seals, the two could stand against one or two sleep jutsu, but not 60 at once.

"There taking us alive, got any ideas why?" Kisame asked.

Itachi shook his head no.

Kiba stopped at a clearing near the forest, "Damnit! They're gone."

Sasuke walked up behind him, "Then why don't we just keep following the scent?"

Kiba shook his head, "There where a lot of people here at the same time, I can't pick up their scent out of all of these. And there's no way in hell I can follow their tracks."

Sasuke looked around the clearing, filling with sudden rage "Damnit!" They were so close, and too late. He fell to his knees and pounded his fist into the snowy ground,

Neji walked towards Sasuke and stood over him placing a hand on his shoulder. "It looks like Itachi and Kisame were ambushed here, Kiba was there any deaths."

"No, I don't smell any blood or see signs of a struggle." Kiba told him. Sasuke lifted his head, no deaths meant Konohamaru was still alive.

"Then I can give you this with out making things worse." Neji handed Sasuke a slip of paper. "I found it nearby."

Sasuke read over the text, the front had the name J. Haijari and phone number, the back had an actual note.

Dear Sasuke: I know (well I hope) your looking for me. They said this number was to their C.O. whatever that is. I'm alright but some one is trying to kill Itachi and Kisame. This creepy guy who's supposed to work with them -

The text cut off abruptly in the middle of the next letter, as if something made him pull his hand away abruptly. Konohamaru was defiantly smarter then he acted most of the time, but it looked like the ambush happened before he could give more clues.

"This is the number to Itachi's Commanding Officer?" Kiba asked, "How is it going to help us?"

Neji took the piece of paper from Sasuke and tucked it in his forehead protector, "This number is going to tell us who and where this person is , if we're lucky we can use him to find Itachi and Kisame."

Kisame let out a soft groan of pain, feeling a light strain on his body. With opened eyes he could see his arms and legs were stretched out and chained to a water mill above a body of water. He seemed to be in a room like a dock or boat house because he could see a gate leading to the outside and a small port he was hanging over

He also was stripped down to nothing but his boxers and was freezing cold.

Two men were standing in front of him, Lewis and the ninja from the train station they still didn't know who's name was. "Look who's finally awake." Lewis said, walking to the edge of the water and looking over Kisame.

"What the hell?" Kisame shouted, his voice was a little shaky from the cold.

Lewis got strait to the point, "Tell me what you know about us, and who you told."

Kisame shook his head, "What is this some kinda torture thing?"

"He's not talking." The unknown man smirked, "I say drown the bastard."

Lewis ignored him, "Tell me what you know."

"I don't know what your talking about." He said this honestly now, he was so surprised that he couldn't even thing of some smart comment to say.

Lewis shrugged, "We'll soon know." he said as reached over to a crank on the wall and began turning it at a steady pace. The mill also began to turn slowly, submerging Kisame into the water feet first.

He gasped at the sudden coldness, feeling it climbing up his body.

"They say someone's face never looks quite as beautiful as when it's contorted in pain…or something like that." Lewis said, watching Kisame struggle as his body went farther and farther into the water. "And we're about to witness it."

The unknown man leaned forward until he was face to face with the sinking Kisame "Get ready, we're going to do the torture thing ." He mocked Kisame, doing motions as if he was taking a deep breath and being submerged under water. Kisame shook his head and clinched his eyes as the water drifted above his neck and over his head until he was completely submerged.

Lewis stopped turning the crank and walked over to the ninja where they could see a barely visible and distorted Kisame struggling under the water's surface. The unknown man laughed, "10 minutes in this water he'll either be crazy or dead."

"5 minutes, he'll give me what I need."

"Whatever, I'm going to go work on Itachi... This is gonna be interesting." The unknown man laughed, turning toward the door.

"Reedamaru, do the kid first. He's the one that blew my cover he's bound to know something."

The unknown man deemed Reedamaru gave him a small nod and lifted two fingers to his forehead in a mock salute before he disappeared in the doorway."

Lewis walked back over to the crank after watching the ninja leave, taking his time turning the handle backwards and lifting Kisame out of the water. Kisame let out another gasp for air, this time panting heavily, his whole body was shaking and his skin was paler then usual from the cold.

"Your turning blue already." The man joked "What do you know."

Kisame shook his head violently, "Nothing! Fuck you, Bastard!" his voice was on the verge of hysterical, obviously this was getting to him. It was good news for Lewis.

"Your choice." He shrugged, turning the crank again, submerging Kisame in the water with out any hesitation.

Kisame squirmed some when he felt the icy waters again, somewhere between when he was waist deep and when he was chest deep his hysterical demeanor lapsed back into his normal self before he went under completely. "You couldn't have thought of a better torture then water? Do you know who I am?...Watch your back…I'm not dead yet." Kisame grinned devilishly as his head went under again...

Kisame began looking along the water bed, finding that it was littered with metal scraps as if something had exploded and sank. A few large pieces in particular that looked like they came from the hull of a boat, which is what he guessed had sunk here and left this weakage They were similar to a rod in shape and protruded from the ground up to about a foot or so from his face, all of them were charged and had uneven and jagged surfaces. Some were particularly sharp.

If his hands weren't tied he could reach them, but chains weren't easy to break out of.

Kisame struggled against them, twisting and turning his arms and legs but he didn't seem to be doing anything more then getting a few splinters from the wood he was bound too.

His only breath was starting to run low and he felt his lungs burning, his body screaming for air, he began wishing…pleading that Lewis would lift him out of the water...And thankfully the mill started to turn and Kisame breathed in desperately as soon his head rose was above water.

Lewis stood waiting at the edge of the dock, he lifted Kisame's dripping wet chin up, looking over his trembling face. "Ready to talk?"

"Tell you what." That same, evil smirk reappeared on Kisame's face, and though he was shaking from the cold and bound by chains he still managed to look pretty menacing. "If you let me go now, I'll leave you the use of your legs."

"What do you know and who have you told?" Lewis asked firmly, ignoring Kisame's last comment.

"I let you touch me, I need a bath." Kisame's smirk grew in to a smile, even as he watched Lewis silently leave him and return to the crank laying on the wall, he started lowering him into the water for the third time.

...He waited until he was completely submerged, to the point where Lewis couldn't see him well.

Kisame couldn't break the chains, but he could ware down the wood. With that in mind he pushed his hands back, rubbing against the wood and feeling a dip quickly forming. Blood began to flow out of a cut formed on the back of his wrist and clouded the water with a red haze. Kisame ignored the pain, he was forced to bite down on his lip to endure the increasing instance of it that came flooding from his wrist. He started pulling his left hand down...then finally out of the chains abruptly, thickening the haze of blood drifting around him in the water.

Kisame reached outward and took some of the long metal scraps that he could reach. By the time he was done he was holding the smaller ones in his free hands and keeping two large pieces in his chained hand. He did it just in time as Lewis began to lift him out of water. 'Heh heh...Idiot.'

Lewis, not particularly focused while he turned the crank, finally saw what Kisame had some how managed to get a hold of when the man's shoulders lifted out of the water. "!" With his first instinct he reached for a Kunai hidden in the sleeve of his coat but Kisame was too fast, tossing one of the jagged metal shards at Lewis with skilled aim, knocking the knife out of his hand before he could raise it. Then tossing the smaller one's into Lewis's stomach and knocking him to the ground.

Kisame reached over and untied the chain on his other hand, and with some interesting maneuvering, he did the same to the ones binding his feet. Kisame pushed off the stalled water mill, jumping the few feet over water surrounding him and landing on the ground. He took another look at his surroundings before he returned his focus to Lewis.

Kisame smirked again, picking up Lewis's Kunai and lifting the injured man off the ground by his neck. He slammed Lewis against the wall and held him there, holding the Kunai to his neck.

"Tell me where Itachi and Konohamaru are."


	16. Chapter 16: Conspiracy in Akatsuki’s ra...

Chapter 16: Conspiracy in Akatsuki's ranks part 5

"It worked." Neji said, leaning against the wall of a restaurant they'd stopped at to make the call…and eat. "J. Haijari didn't answer, but someone else did and I was able to get information by posing as a member of Akatsuki."

Kiba got up from his seat, a bowl of Ramen in hand and walked over to Neji along with Sasuke. "So, what did you get?"

"I got a location, the Mist village."

"The Mist Village? I thought it was destroyed."

"_It_ was, but Akatsuki's Headquarters is underground and it was about the only thing that did survive. The woman said that they "Have Itachi." what do you think that means?"

Sasuke folded his arms, "They say it like they've captured him."

"They are trying to kill him, that's exactly what it means." Kiba said, taking in another mouth full of the Ramen.

"Then they must have Konohamaru, we need to get there now." Sasuke said, his word's hasted by realization that they probably would kill Konohamaru.

Konohamaru lay still with his hands tied behind his back, Reedamaru had made good on Lewis's request and tortured him first. It involved a knife and some salt, Konohamaru could tell the ninja had enjoyed it…a little to much. But Konohamaru knew nothing so after 10 minutes or so Reedamaru said he had to take care of Itachi first and he'd be back.

Someone was supposed to be coming to take him to Headquarters so Reedamaru could 'continue'. But instead he heard sound of fighting from above him, giving him some idea of where he was. He had to be in some type of basement.

'What's…going to happen to me?….Are they going to keep torturing me? No…I can't take this anymore.' Konohamaru curled up to a ball and clinched his eyes tightly, the sounds of the fight upstairs growing louder.

Then they suddenly stopped. Konohamaru felt a strong light on him from above, he rolled on to his back, feeling the hard ground on his bareback made the cut he'd received hurt a little more. The light was blinding at first, he couldn't see anything until someone stepped into the doorway, even then the person was only a figure.

'Great…their taking me…guess this is the end.'

"Hey kid, you alright."

'K-Kisame.' He immediately recognized that voice, and realized that that Kisame must have been the cause of the fighting sounds. Konohamaru looked up with wide as and Kisame jumped down from the doorway, knelling over him. That was the last thing he saw, the wound on the back of his head made him pass out again.

Konohamaru woke up again, find that the wound on his back no longer hurt and had been bandaged. He was alone in a large bed with warm covers over him and a soft pillow under him. 'This feels really good…' He was comfortable, to the point where he didn't want to move an inch.

As more of his senses awakened Konohamaru was able to hear a shower running, most likely Kisame who really needed it after all of that fighting. With a soft yawn Konohamaru pulled himself out of the bed and looked around the hotel room he was staying in. Which raised the question of how Kisame obtained it if he didn't have any money.

"Huh?" Konohamaru finally realized that he was wearing nothing but his boxers, 'Where are my pants?' He looked closer around the room, finding them folded on a nightstand nearby. With a small sigh of relief the boy put them on, noting the small twinge of from the gash cross his back that was bandaged with gauze.

"Hey, the kid's up."

Konohamaru turned around and saw Kisame walking into the room in robe, drying his hair with a towel. "Kisame?"

Kisame walked up to him, peering over his head and looking at his back. The wound was bleeding again from Konohamaru's sudden movements. "Your seeping, look at me." In a completely surprising move Kisame opened his robe leaving Konohamaru standing there wide eyed.

Then Kisame lent over him and pulled off the bandage getting a howl of pain from Konohamaru before discarding the bloodily fabric and closing his robe again. "What was that!" Konohamaru asked, looking up confusedly. "That hurt."

"I know, that's why I distracted you." Kisame smirked amusedly at the boy's reaction which was mainly why he did it, finding his clothing laid across a dresser where he'd left them. "The same principle goes for deflowering virgins-"

"Virgins? Huh-Wha?"

"I read this book once, this guy bite's them on the ear to distract them from the pain. You ever try that?" Kisame asked with a hint of undetectable sarcasm and the smirk on his face growing into a wide grin.

Konohamaru shook his head realizing that Kisame was messing with him again. "No."

"You should try it some time, maybe I'll try it on you." Kisame gave a small laugh.

Konohamaru stared at him blankly.

"Anyway, do you still have that number from before?"

"Number?" Konohamaru though about it for a second, then he remembered the piece of paper Lewis had. "No, I left it behind but I remember what was on it. 565-9032 ext. 457"

Kisame looked back at him with a raised eyebrow, "You remembered it?"

"Uh-huh."

With a shrug Kisame put the phone on speaker and put in the first 7 numbers, then waited exactly 10 seconds until he heard a small click the put in the extension. "What are you calling that for?" Konohamaru asked.

"You'll see. Just count of 2 minutes and tell me when your almost there."

A man answered on the other end, "Haijari." Giving his last name as the standard greeting instead of a regular Hello.

"This is Kisame. I finished my assignment and I got the kind"

They heard a semi long pause on the other end before the man said something, even then he sounded surprised. "I thought you were dead because of the storm, what happened to you?"

"I was babysitting, don't ask."

"Bring him in as soon as possible."

"That's not how it works, if you want him It'll be on my terms." Konohamaru tapped him on the shoulder telling him time was almost up.

"Of course."

"I'll be in touch." Kisame hung of the phone.

"What'd you need me to count for?" Konohamaru asked.

"So they wont trace the call. Why else?"

Konohamaru shrugged "Where is Itachi?"

Kisame became suddenly serous when that name was mentioned. "They took him back to headquarters."

"They have him? So why aren't we trying to rescue him." Konohamaru didn't like being kidnapped, but he'd gained some level respect for both of them considering the situation they were in and how Itachi and Kisame had been 'nice' in their own, strange way.

"We can't go now, we'll be to close. They'll catch us and we'll be in the same mess he's in."

"So when can we go?"

"A few hours…Why are you so interested."

Konohamaru shrugged "I don't know, Why haven't you killed me yet? Itachi's not here and you could have left me down there."

Kisame snorted, sliding his shirt on to him then putting on his black robe "The only reason your still alive is because Itachi wants you that way."

"But…Itachi got captured, if your going to get him back then I'd just be in the way."

"Keep pushing it and you will be dead." Kisame growled annoyedly, he didn't have that amused undertone he usual had when he made death threats to Konohamaru. He must have really been mad.

Konohamaru didn't seem to notice it though, he actually wanted to know why Kisame had saved him "Why did you save me?"

Kisame sighed with even more annoyment, "Do you ever shut up? I'm going to go take a walk before I actually do kill you. Stay. Put. You understand kid?"

Konohamaru didn't even have time to respond before Kisame walked out of the room. "What's with him?"

Kisame wandered carelessly through the streets of the Snow Village, trying not to think to much. He mainly did this just to kill time, a few hours seemed longer when you were sitting in one spot.

He felt a kunai pressing against his neck and a body behind him. "Why don't you take a small trip with me?"

Kisame looked back to see a hunter-nin only with out the uniform in plain clothes. "Haijari sent you didn't he?" He asked, being pushed into a nearby alley. "Damnit, he traced us anyway, your early why don't you leave and come back in a few hours."

The knife pressed harder against him. "Don't get smart."

"Drop it."

Kisame and the hunter looked over to the side to see Konohamaru hanging off a fire escape ladder high enough to be at their height with a shrunken press against the back of the hunter's neck.

"Damn kid." Kisame growled angrily. "What the hell are you doing here

"Saving _you_." Konohamaru shot back.

"I don't need your help, your just putting your self in danger." Kisame told him.

"How?" Konohamaru's voice was in a slightly angry tone.

"Hunters never travel alone. What, do you take stupid lessens?"

Konohamaru glared at him "Yes!" he yelled sarcastically.

The hunter press the knife harder, "Hey!"

Konohamaru and Kisame looked at him, answering at the same time. "What!"

"I still have this knife."

Kisame rolled his eyes, shifting a his body little and grabbing the hunter's arm, then sending a sharp kick backwards. Easily dropping the man to the ground with one blow. As soon as he was down 3 more appeared on the 2 roof tops above them. "Now you don't, so shut up already."

A fury of Kunais began raining on them, Konohamaru let go of the ladder and pressed his body against a dumpster for cover while Kisame waited in the open. Flicking his arms outward and releasing two Kunais with a thin almost invisible wire tied around them from his wrist.

Both of them flew past two hunters in a seeming miss, Kisame pulled them back with a sharp jerk, watching the wire run into and tie around their necks by the moment of the Kunai on the return trip. With little effort Kisame tugged on the wires and pulled them down to the ground. Letting go of the wire, Kisame sprinted behind the dumpster Konohamaru was waiting against. With out warning he snatched that shrunken out of his hands "Give me that."

With Konohamaru's shrunken, he dived out from behind the cover of the dumpster, tossing it in to the third hunter's head while the man reached for another kunai. Kisame springing on his hand then flipping on to his feet with a strength filled grace.

"He's insane! I have to get away from him!" Konohamaru said agitatedly into the phone. "You have to get me away from Kisame, I'm at a hotel near the lake, room 6B. He's about too but I think he said he's come back here around 1 in the morning. You have to get me outta here!" Konohamaru hung up with a relived sigh, turning round and finding Kisame standing behind him with his arms folded. "Why did you want me to do that?"

"I'm testing Haijari, you wait here around one, if Haijari's wants to capture us he'll take you hostage and tortured you for my whereabouts. In which case, Shrug I don't trust him"

"Huh! No way!" Konohamaru shouted getting another one of Kisame's amused smirks who was once again messing with him. He'd actually gotten quite good at it.

"Well can we go after Itachi yet?"

"No, still too early."

"Well then if we have to wait, Train me."

Kisame looked down at Konohamaru with a raised eyebrow. "Heh, alright kid. It's going to be tough." He needed to blow off some steam anyway, he couldn't sneak in to Akatsuki headquarters with his mind clouded by anger. He needed to be at his absolute best if he stood have a chance at getting Itachi back.

"I'm ready!" Konohamaru said waiting in a fighting stance. Kisame had lead him to a wooded area nearby which they could also watch the hotel from incase Haijari sent someone to ambush him.

Kisame looked at Konohamaru knowing he had no idea what he was getting himself into, "If you really wanna go through with this, come at me, I wanna see how strong you really are." Konohamaru showed no apprehension and charged at Kisame.

Konohamaru jumped at him, pulling his arm back and throwing a punch at his head. Kisame lifted his hand easily grabbing Konohamaru's fist and holding him in the air by it. With little strength, Kisame sent a jab into Konohamaru's stomach, enough to sent the small body flying a few feet into a tree.

Hissing in pain Konohamaru held his stomach while he used the tree to get to his feet. Then dashed at Kisame with just as much energy as before, throwing another punch at him from ground level. Kisame let the boy hit him, the punches doing no damage at all as Konohamaru sent a flurry of them into Kisame's stomach.

Kisame sent a soft punch into the side of Konohamaru's head, knocking him back on to the ground. Then Kisame gave him a light kick to the chest that sent his body flying into the same tree.

Konohamaru held his head while he again got up, jumping at Kisame from where he was and sending a kick towards Kisame's face. Kisame grabbed Konohamaru by the leg, hanging him upside down for a moment and watching Konohamaru squirm feverously to break free. Then tossing the boy aside in to another tree.

This time Konohamaru went through it completely, making Kisame cringe a little. He hadn't meant to throw him that hard he just slipped out of his grasp. "Damnit." Kisame sighed, walked toward the downed tree to find Konohamaru already getting up again.

Though he did so much slower and obviously in pain from being thrown through a tree. But when he was up he ran at Kisame with the same energy and persistence, "Huh?" He'd figured the boy would be quitting after that but he still was coming .

With a small yell, Konohamaru slid down on the ground feet first, attempting to give a sweep kick to Kisame. In response all he got was another kick harder then the others before it, sending Konohamaru sliding backwards along the ground to a stop a few feet away. The added strength was on purpose this time.

Yet again Konohamaru got up with out saying a word, springing toward a tree and kicking off of it diving at Kisame head first with his fist pulled back and his long scarf . Kisame held out his hand, gabbing Konohamaru out of the air by his shirt collar. Then sending a sharp knee in to his chest before tossing him away.

Konohamaru rolled to a stop against a tree, pushing himself on to his knees with his hands the wiping away a small amount of blood from his forehead. Kisame just watched as Konohamaru stumbled on to his feet and came at him again and again.

Kisame started hitting him a little harder each time, seeing how much he could take. But it seemed that Konohamaru wouldn't stay down. He moved slower and slower because of the damaged he'd sustained, and his attacks grew weaker but not losing any persistence.

Kisame looked at the boy pulling himself on to his feet for the countless time, watching him try again to attack him. It'd been 30 minutes and Konohamaru still didn't give up one bit, it may have taking him much longer to get up back then when he first start, last time it took a whole minute, but Konohamaru kept coming.

Just watching it made Kisame star to feel increasingly bad about doing this, and each second he lost more and more of his will to continue. 'What dose it take to make this kid stay down?' "Alright you can stop." Kisame said.

Konohamaru immediately fell back and sat down with pants of heavy breaths. For him showing such persistence and determination and since Kisame felt so bad about doing this to Konohamaru, he decided to give him some actual training.

Standing over him he looked over the boy, deciding he was in good enough condition to do some light training. But what was light enough? "You have a lot of Chakra that you don't know how to use, in fact you have a lot of potential. I'm going to teach you how to bring it out."

Konohamaru looked up at him with grin on his face. "Are you going to teach me a Jutsu?"

Kisame shook his head, "Your not ready for a jutsu, you have to learn to use all of that Chakra you have first. It's a powerful tool, in fact you won't need me to teach you Jutsu when your done."

"Great! Now how do I do that?" Konohamaru asked.

"Tell me what happened the other times you brought out that Chakra?"

Konohamaru looked up with a concentrated look on his face. "The first time….I was trapped under a dead fox and I couldn't get it off." Just remembering that moment made Konohamaru shutter. "And the second time is when Itachi was using Sharingan on me and Sasuke."

Kisame thought about what he said, realizing that everything that triggered that Chakra was mental. And the first incident with the demon fox had more of an effect on him. "What did you feel like when it happened?"

"I was really wanted to get that fox off of me… I guess I was scared."

"Was it because it was dead?"

"Yeah, some of it. And it was getting blood all over me."

"So It looks like the only way to trigger that Chakra is to make you have that feeling you had before. If you can control that, you can control the Chakra…And I think a know the Genjutsu that will get the job done." Kisame was referring to a Jutsu that made the target hallucinate.

If he did it enough times, Konohamaru would memorize the trigger and would be able to bring out that Chakra anytime he wanted. Kisame explained it to Konohamaru who reluctantly agreed.

Each time Kisame did the Jutsu Konohamaru's body unleashed the Chakra, along with loud cries of fear and anticipation. Konohamaru tried not to focus on the dead fox on top of him that he kept seeing and feeling…concentrating on the feeling that he felt….

After an hour or so, Konohamaru had it down packed. He knew how to bring out the Chakra by hart, now all he had to do was learn how to use it.

Before Kisame could teach him more about it they saw a horde of hunter-nins storming the hotel, it looked like they couldn't trust anyone in Akatsuki anymore…

They had to leave abruptly though, before they got caught. And Kisame deemed they were far enough away to get to Akatsuki's headquarters with out trouble.

"Alright kid, we have to-" Kisame looked down at Konohamaru who'd fallen asleep while he watched the hotel.

Silently Kisame strapped his Samehada to his back and lifted the boy into his arm. He had a long way to go…


	17. Chapter 17: Conspiracy in Akatsuki’s ra...

Chapter 17: Conspiracy in Akatsuki's ranks part 6

Sasuke led the way toward the Mist Village, a long way off from the Snow Village. He, Neji and Kiba ended up travailing through out the whole night.

"Who would have guessed so much would happen." Kiba sighed, springing through the rolling hills of short grass and periodic flowers that separated them from their destination.

"I can't help but wonder how much of Konoha survived the storm…" Neji said thoughtfully, "The only reason we made it out alive is because Naruto told us where to go. If we'd gotten to that same spot 30 seconds later we'd be dead by now. How many other people where in that same situation?…"

"There's noting left of Konoha." Sasuke said solemnly. "I heard back in the Snow Village."

There was a small silence between them… "So what are we gonna do? We don't have a home to go back too after we're done." Kiba said.

"We'll figure that out after we rescue Konohamaru." Sasuke said.

Konohamaru stirred, awaking surrounded by warmth. With a small yawn he opened is his eyes and found that he was in Kisame's arms "Kisame? Where are we?"

"Half way to the Mist village." He said, stopping on the barely visible dirt path on top of a hill. He lowered Konohamaru and sat down figuring it was a good time to take a break after 6 straight hours of continuous travel.

"Whoa, look at this place." Konohamaru said looking around in awe. The hill looked as if it was the top of a mountain and they were on the edge, surrounded by deep valleys of other hills with one winding river running through all of them. An interesting landscape that easily impressed, especially at sunrise that Konohamaru was disappointed he missed.

Kisame let his hands rest behind his head and laid back, starring aimlessly at the passing clouds then looking down at Konohamaru who was looking down at the valley with child like curiosity. The boy started to walk down the hill, turning to the side and letting himself slide down the slope.

Konohamaru looked back and watched his scarf flutter in the wind behind him, he felt the rush of cool air over his body as he gained speed. "Whoa!" A wobbling Konohamaru started to lose his balance and fell down the hill, his body rolling head over heels 30 feet down the slope to the bottom and stopping just short of the river.

"Oww." Konohamaru rubbed his head a little and stood up, looking down at the running water.

"Your really clumsy brat."

Konohamaru flinched from the surprise, looking up to see Kisame laying lazily on the other side of the stream with his hands behind his head and his eyes on Konohamaru. "I'm not a brat." Konohamaru said discardingly.

"You need some serous balance, I don't see how you made it this far with out breaking something…oh yeah." Kisame remembered the bandages around Konohamaru's head, he'd gotten so use to seeing it that he'd stop thinking about it entirely.

Konohamaru jumped over the spring and stood over Kisame, "Why don't you give me some more training then?" He asked with a sheepish grin.

Kisame closed his eyes, "No way, I'm tired."

"Please! Please boss!" Konohamaru pleaded.

Kisame opened one eye and shifted a little, being called boss did sound good… "Alright then, I'll train you on balance." Kisame closed his eyes again "You remember how to build you Chakra from last night don't you?"

"I think so." Konohamaru said unsurely.

"Ok, do it."

Konohamaru clinched his eyes shut, trying to hone in on the emotion that used the point of his brain that had been injured. "I…I can't do it." Konohamaru sighed.

Kisame opened his eyes again, "What do you mean you can't do it, we spent an hour on it last night."

"I'm trying but I can't do it." Konohamaru said.

"Then it looks like I'll have to use that Genjutsu again." Kisame said, lifting his hands and about to do the seals

"No, wait! Don't…" Konohamaru said, a genuine tone of fear in his voice.

"Look, I know your afraid. Can't you see that's the whole point." Kisame said annoyedly, finishing the hand seals while Konohamaru still protested. A haze came over the boy, seeing his vision distort and fade while his body fell backwards on to the ground.

With unfocused, lifeless eyes, Konohamaru squirmed letting out weakened cries of struggling. "Aahhh! Let me out of this place!" he was so frantic and loud with desperation that he broke through the jutsu on his own. Of course Kisame hadn't used much Chakra to making it strong.

"I…I can't do this." Konohamaru said, "My head hurts."

Kisame snorted in annoyance, "Stop being a little baby." His tone was so cold and fierce that it surprised Konohamaru. "I told you my training would be hard and I really don't care if your scared. Life is pain, get use to it." There was a forlorn hint to his coldness this time, as if he was thinking about something as he said it. "Now, go through the Jutsu, memorize the trigger, got it?"

With down cast eyes Konohamaru nodded, feeling the same hazy feeling as Kisame did the Genjutsu on him. This time when he fell to the ground he looked as if he was visibly trying not to squirm as much as previous times. But in the end he failed and let out a fearful scream.

His eyes tightly clinched Konohamaru shouted loudly, setting off the trigger and causing a rush of Chakra flowing over his body when all of it finally became too much. That's when Kisame released the jutsu and allowed Konohamaru to stand, noticing that he immediately lifted his hand to his head and started rubbing.

"Alright, if you got that down then you ready for the next step. Instead of using your Chakra in a jutsu that controls it and places it automatically, you need to use it more manually by controlling it yourself. You have to move it around, try to put as much of it as you can in your torso." Kisame instructed.

"Ok…" Still holding his head with an estranged expression, Konohamaru pushed the Chakra around in his body with some tensing and clinching, fairly simple.

"Great, now here's the hard part. You have to rotate it and keep it in place. If your Charka shifts around a lot while it's spinning then it will throw you off balance. it's going to take some practice to get it right The trick is to start small and release a fixed out of your body continuously. But that's just a guideline… " Kisame said, watching Konohamaru began to discharge a small amount, but the amount was so small that it was replaced just as quickly as it was released.

With the flow of incoming Chakra forming from his left side and out going Chakra leaving from his right, more specifically his right hand. The charka started to stir…but it didn't spin as Konohamaru hoped it would. With a small grunt from the pain in his head, Konohamaru stood to his feet and tried it again.

'This isn't going to work…' He thought impatiently, letting the Chakra flow back through out his whole body again.

"Maybe if I…" With an idea, Konohamaru first pushed the Charka in his left leg towards his torso, then his right leg right after. Next his right arm, then his head, then his left arm in that order.

The way the entered they torso gave it a small spin to start off with, when Konohamaru began releasing it gradually the spin increased substantially.

"Feel the difference? You need to keep a larger amount spinning to have more balance. If your body moves backwards off center like if you fall, the Chakra will push forward and keep you balanced." Kisame put his hands behind him and pushed himself up. Konohamaru shook his head, not feeling much but Chakra. "Alright, I'll show you." Kisame grabbed him by his collar and abruptly tossed him into the air about 15 feet.

Konohamaru involuntarily began flipping at a dizzying rate that he couldn't keep up with, but some how he landed perfectly on his feet. Usually Konohamaru would have said something after Kisame doing something like that with out warning, but his eyes only drifted closed and he fell back to the ground.

"Kid?" Kisame knelt over him, quickly seeing that he was completely unconscious. 'How the…' Kisame's mind automatically went back to when Konohamaru said his head hurted. 'Damnit! I forgot about his head…..'

Kisame picked Konohamaru up, feeling the Chakra dieing down in the small body.

Konohamaru opened his eyes again, finding he was surrounded by the same warmth he'd awaken to before. "Kisame?" Konohamaru shifted in Kisame's arms, looking up at the man who was looking back down on him.

"I forgot about your little injury." Kisame said, sitting Konohamaru down in the valley of another hill then lifting him on to his back.

"It's my fault, I asked for the training…I should have been better prepared." Konohamaru said, looking away.

"That's a good mindset." Kisame smirked "But I should've stopped…"

Konohamaru looked over Kisame's shoulder at his face curiously "Are you apologizing?"

"…."

"Your saying sorry to me." Konohamaru ginned.

"Shut up."

"Heh heh."

"Whatever."

"Hey Kisame?"

"Huh?"

"…Uh…How long have I been out?"

Kisame looked back at him, easily able to tell that was not what he originally wanted to ask. But he thought nothing of it "2 hours."

"Well…Can I continue my training boss?"

Kisame didn't stop, "I don't know."

"Please Boss, I can handle it this time, I'm ready!" Konohamaru said anxiously.

"What the hell." Kisame shrugged "Do you remember what your trigger is?"

Konohamaru looked toward the skies, clinching his eyes tightly and trying to remember what emotion drew out his Chakra. He knew it but he just couldn't use it… "I…can't do it."

"You know I'll have to use that Jutsu on you again."

Konohamaru swallowed, "Yeah, go ahead."

Kisame nodded and began doing the hand seals, as soon as he finished the hypnotizing Jutsu he pulled Konohamaru off his back, feeling the boy's grip loosening and about to fall. Still moving, Kisame pulled him in to his arms, feeling Konohamaru struggle beneath him from what he was seeing.

Once more the image of the dead demon fox and the feel of blood hunted Konohamaru, forcing him to cry out loudly. His mind stayed focused though, trying his best to look past what he was feeling and find what more specifically caused that trigger. But Kisame released the Jutsu before he could figure it out.

"One more time Boss." Konohamaru said. With a nod Kisame used the Jutsu again, find the hand seals awkward to do while holding.

Again Konohamaru started screaming while his barely focused mind tried to sort through what was causing this…something fueled his emotions…something even worse then that this dead fox was pinning him down…. But once again Kisame released the jutsu.

"One…more time…boss." Konohamaru's voice was a little weaker, that quickly changed when Kisame activated the Jutsu again.

After a minute of nothing but absolute anxiety and something else along the same lines that made him want to do nothing more then be out of this once and for all…It hit him…he remembered he was the one that _killed_ the demon. Even though it was out of self defense and he had no other choice it still didn't change the fact that he'd killed a living thing.

He hated it, it made him feel as if he was one of those demons, like he was the one that killed that woman…

_He froze when he came to a nearby house, a large hole was created in the side giving him an clear view of what was happening inside. A woman in side was completely mauled, the actual wounds were hidden by the remains of her clothing and copious amounts of blood. But he could see that her stomach and torso had been ripped open and nearly hollowed out, the woman could only let out a weakened cry with her last breath. Whatever had done this was still there, he could hear it biting and chewing, but it's body was concealed by the darkness in the room, except for a pair of downcast glowing red eyes._

The most horrible sight he'd ever seen, and he'd caused the same thing to happen to this fox… and he was covered in it's blood, a reminder of it. .

"AAA!" Konohamaru screamed louder then before, Chakra washing over him so suddenly and in such a large amount that it knocked Kisame out of the air halfway through his jump.

"What the hell was that!…Are you ok?" Kisame asked, lifting Konohamaru off of him. Konohamaru nodded

"I…figured it out, what the trigger is." Konohamaru's voice was soft, barely over a whisper. And he held his head down with a sadden look on his face as if he'd done something and regretted it.

"So what is it?"

"When Konoha was attacked by those demons, the first thing I saw was this lady. And one of the demon had killed her….it was so horrible… she was alive while that thing was eating her stomach. I…killed one of them, and I got it's blood all over me." Konohamaru shuttered visibly, so strongly that his whole body spasmed violently.

Kisame watched him for a second, "So killing it and being covered in it's blood was what triggered the Chakra."

"Yeah…"

"I guess you can't stand killing..."

"…"

"Well then why do you want me to train you?" Kisame asked.

Konohamaru didn't have to think about it, "At first I only wanted to become a ninja so I could become Hokage and have people finally recognize _me_…not just a person who's the Hokage's grandson."

"You're the…I mean you were the Hokage's grandson?"

"Yeah…But after everything that's happened, I want to become a good ninja so I can help and protect people around me, not just be some one that's in the way and is only a burden. Like now, Itachi's in trouble and I'm just in the way…"

"Hey kid, why do you even want to rescue Itachi, we did kidnap you."

"…I'm not sure my self…but you guys aren't all bad and I wanna help."

"Well……if you already figured out how to open up all that Charka you have, you could be of some help. I'll give it to you, you're a fast learner."

"Heh."

"Well don't be expecting to do to much, this is too dangerous for you. You'd be killed."

"…That's why I have to become a good ninja…I have to train hard." Konohamaru pushed himself off the ground and stood to his feet, with a concentrated look and a tense body Konohamaru set off the trigger and he erupted with Chakra…but it was painful to keep going back to that moment to use it…he had to find a better way.

"Not bad." Kisame said, lifting the boy on to his back and continuing forward. "We'll be there in a few more hours."

Konohamaru nodded, working on the balance technique Kisame had taught him. He had to get it to the point where he didn't have to think about it. This was the first thing he'd master, his next step in becoming a ninja…


	18. Chapter 18: Conspiracy in Akatsuki’s ra...

Chapter 18: Conspiracy in Akatsuki's ranks part 7

Akatsuki Headquarters were literally the only thing standing in the Mist village, mainly because it was built about 5 stories underground. The subsidiary one story building that served as an entrance had been completely destroyed, now only a series of rams and stairwells that led to different parts of the building.

No… this wasn't headquarters exactly, it was one of them. Akatsuki had another similar set up back in the cloud village, headquarters was regional to were you were. You just went to which ever of the two your were closer to. Headquarters was technically in the cloud village because that' s where the heads of the organization resided.

Kisame scoped out the area from the safe distance of a few hundred feet, Akatsuki's security was always tight. But being a member he knew every detail of it and being a ninja he was able to conceal himself and Konohamaru accordingly.

"Damn…" Kisame watched as the mysterious ninja along with Haijari and 5 others take Itachi down a stairwell into headquarters. The place was surrounded by ninjas that seemed to be working but on Kisame wasn't concerned with, he was concerned about their numbers. "Haijari is working with that guy and his ninjas…Maybe separately we had a chance…"

"What's the problem, didn't we already know that?"

"I wasn't sure if it was really true…They're going to take my head off." Kisame's voice trailed off, watching the odds stack against him.

"So what are we going to do?" Konohamaru asked.

"We? We aren't going to do anything, your going to stay here and I'm going after Itachi." Kisame said, pulling his sword off his back and holding it at his side as he pressed his body on to the ground. Konohamaru wined a bit.

"Listen to me very closely, Do not. Go. Near. That. Place. Don't move, don't make a sound. As soon as you see I have Itachi run as fast as you can in the opposite direction. If I get captured do the same thing. Am I understood?" Kisame was deadly serous, more serous then Konohamaru imaged someone like him to be.

He had no choice but to agree, "Alright, just get Itachi back."

Kisame nodded and disappeared in a flash of speed, leaving Konohamaru by himself 'Good luck boss….' He thought to himself, watching Kisame reappear behind ninja with a Kunai in his hand.

Konohamaru jumped when he felt something sharp pressing against his back.

"Don't even think about moving." Konohamaru looked back to see a hunter ninja The boy froze, flinching again when he felt a drop of rain start to fall from the night sky.

'Here goes nothing!' Konohamaru rolled to the side and sprang to his feet before the man could hit him with the Kunai and started running.

Kisame shook the increasingly intense rain from his face as he made his way behind a box, looking over both sides cautiously before leaping to the right, rolling along the ground to avoid the view of a near by person, then diving behind another box.

He was only a few feet away from the staircase where they'd taken Itachi… Kisame cringed as the box started to lift, pulling out another Kunai he held himself curled up on the side of the package. Letting himself be carried a few feet until he was directly over the stairwell and fell in, landing in the shadows of the doorway and abruptly running inside.

Itachi was standing waiting behind the 6 inch thick steel door. "Kisame, you shouldn't have come, there waiting for you."

"I know already, but it's better then doing nothing, come on!" Kisame said waving him toward the door. "Got any decent plains?"

"No."

"Then we just run like hell." Kisame clinched his sword tightly and jumped out of the stairway and to ground level. Moving as inconspicuously as possible and actually making it halfway.

Until flood lights that surrounded the base came on and a speaker that roared to life. "Get um' boys, just make sure you save a piece of them for me." It was the voice of that same Mystery ninja Reedamaru from before. Yeah it was defiantly a trap. Hunter-nins start to swarm towards them with imposable odds, tossing a barrage of Kunai's and Shrunkens from all sides.

Kisame lifted his sword and blocked just about all of them, Itachi's speed was quick enough to do the same, they were doing pretty well…Until Konohamaru came flying in front of them, landing painfully at their feet. "What the hell!" Kisame growled, looking in the direction he came from then kicking Konohamaru's body forward to avoid a Kunai.

Itachi drew the sword sheathed behind his back and thrust it in to the Hunter-nin that jumped down next to Konohamaru, seeing that Kisame had accidentally kicked the boy into another stairway that used to be a room when the building was standing. Itachi wasted no time going after him, jumping in to the dark hole with Kisame following.

By the time they landed they were surrounded outside by every Hunter on the premises as well as Reedamaru. "I noticed you went in there after the kid, take a look around you."

Kisame felt along the wall for a light switch, flicking it on to reveal the room was filled with barrels and other types of containers. All of them filled with gasoline and other fuels that were highly flammable. "That'd be a bad way for the kid to die. I'll give you 30 seconds, think it over."

Kisame and Itachi looked at each other, then down at Konohamaru. "Sorry, this guy came out of nowhere tried to kill me." Konohamaru said with a lowered head.

"Looks like it's all over, there's no way out." Kisame sighed, putting his sword back on his back.

Itachi wasn't paying attention, he looked around all of the fuel, more specifically at the open containers. Then he looked down at Konohamaru's scarf, "Konohamaru, come here."

Kisame sat on his knees with his hands chained behind his back, stripped of his sword and any other weapons. Konohamaru and Itachi were beside him in a similar position in the same state. They were inside, in a small room with 4 or 5 barrels of fuel against the wall, leading to a steel door that opened to a freezer.

Reedamaru and their C.O Haijari stood before them along with a few other hunters. The organization Akatsuki was headed by unknown six people, he was one of them, and big orders are carried out by the nine hand-picked ninjas. That included Orochimaru, Kabuto, Kisame, and Itachi. "Damnit you two should have stayed dead, you'll only get in the way, that's why we don't need you to alive." Haijari said.

"What the hell are you talking about? What are we getting in the way of?" Kisame asked.

"A few years back Akatsuki was discovered by the Mist and an incident occurred. Akatsuki lost a lot in the fight as well as the Mist and to them we dropped off the face of the earth…" Haijari started. "Ironic isn't it that we have one of our main bases right under their noses. When asked how the incident got started, an interesting fact came up during the investigation."

Haijari looked over the three of them. "They say that Akatsuki may have had advanced knowledge of the attack but did nothing to prevent it. Anti-surveillance and defense department's budget doubled. It's gone down a lot since then, my department barely has anything to work with."

"Dose this story have a point?" Kisame said.

"Sure it did, but you'll never hear it now." Haijari said, walking away and going upstairs.

"Let's get down to business." The ninja said, point towards the freezer. The hunter-nins behind the 3 lifted them on there feet and began leading them to it. "No, just him." The man said, pointing to Itachi. "Take him up stairs." He pointed to Kisame.

"It's your turn to rescue me." Kisame said to Itachi.

"I'll be there in a minute." Itachi replied.

Itachi was thrown roughly into the freezer, the ninja watching aptly from the door. "So what exactly are you planning to do?" Itachi asked.

"Like I'm telling you."

"I'm going to die anyway, I want know."

Reedamaru shrugged. "Alright. 5,000 explosive tags attached to a heating mechanism that uses a lot of fuel. Move the bomb to an Akatsuki base in the next city and let it go. We'll blame it on the Leaf of course." He pointed to a frozen and hanging from a meat hook behind Itachi, he had a leaf forehead protector.

That's when Itachi began to put it together as two hunters took the man off the hook and carried him out. Haijari was trying to use this attack to scare some funding for is department out of Akatsuki. Itachi and Kisame would cause to much of a problem so they wanted them out of the way. And Haijari recruited a Mist ninja of all thing to help him do it.

"Reedamaru is it…" Itachi said, standing to his feet. "I've noticed something interesting about you and Konohamaru."

Reedamaru raised an eyebrow, "I gotta hear this one."

"I thought something was about you seemed familiar, I've seen you before. In Konohamaru." Itachi smirked.

"Uh…Wha? Where are you going with this, I don't have all day. Terrorist Bombing in all, a lot of money is riding on this. "

"You're the Hokage's son, and Konohamaru's father. I remember you now because you disappeared from Konoha."

"What the hell are you talking about."

"Need proof, look in to his eyes, their yours. " Itachi said, "The time when you disappeared matches up with his age, all of it leads back to you."

Reedamaru laughed. "Son huh?" He looked back "Could you bring my little bastard in here?" Both watched as one of the men pushed Konohamaru in to the freezer, he hadn't heard a word they said so he didn't know anything. Reedamaru grabbed the boy by his shoulders and move a few inches from his face "Let me look at you fucking eyes."

Reedamaru stared into the brown orbs, his expression dropping a bit as his eyes started to roll over the boy's body. Reedamaru was easily an exact copy of Konohamaru only much older…Itachi was right….'No he couldn't be.' Konohamaru smirked impishly at the man's confusion….Reedamaru started laughing again, only this time more nervously and Konohamaru pushed him away toward Itachi.

Itachi looked at him with that same evil smile he used so many years ago, pointing to his Sharingan eyes. "You know what, you two can die together. Enjoy yourselves." Reedamaru said, starting to close the thick steel door.

"Your going to die screaming." Itachi said uncaringly, Reedamaru stopped and looked at him for a moment "Am I telling the truth?" Itachi's smile increased while the ninja abruptly slammed the door shut and locking them in.

Kisame had been chained to a chair one level above Itachi and Konohamaru. Reedamaru emerged from the stairway, twirling a Kunai on his finger. "Sorry for the wait."

"Oh for you mystery guy, always a pleasure." Kisame said with a grin. "You know-AAAhhh!" Kisame flinched and let out a yelp of surprise when Reedamaru tossed the knife at him that landed only an inch from his crotch.

Itachi pulled his cloaked off and wrapped it around a grateful Konohamaru, then pulled the meat hook down from the ceiling and knelt by the door, scraping it against the ground to wear a grove into it. Konohamaru only watched in silence, knowing that some of this was his fault.

"You know I called headquarters right, the other one I mean. By morning this place will be crawling with ninjas." Kisame said.

Reedamaru shrugged. "Morning? We'll be cleared out of here by morning."

"Yeah well…Some of them said they couldn't sleep so they might show up early."

Having warn a small path in the ground from where Itachi stood to just under the door. "Konohamaru." On his call Konohamaru walked over to him, standing still while Itachi removed his completely wet scarf. But the scarf wasn't wet from rain, most of it had been soaked in fuel.

Itachi carefully ringed out the strong liquid into the grove, watching a fairly large amount seep into the path and flow under the door into the next room.

He couldn't use fire Jutsu on the fuel to ignite it, the freezer was way too cold to do it from a distance. If he did it from up close he'd end up setting himself on fire because he had Fuel on his hands, so instead he took the meat hook and slammed it into the ground, trying to create a spark.

'Come on!' Itachi struck the ground harder and harder until the edge of the hook broke off, it was clear he wasn't going to get what he was looking for. 'No….There's no other way out….'

Itachi looked back at Konohamaru, more concerned for him then himself, now they both would die here. He didn't want that for the boy, he didn't care that much for himself. He saw the boy more as a little brother, like how he used to be with Sasuke…Itachi wasn't completely evil.

Konohamaru walked up to him smirking. "Kisame gave me some training…will Chakra work?"

Itachi could hardly believe what he'd just heard, Kisame actually gave him training, real training, not just vented anger. "Yes." Itachi couldn't help but smile to himself, who'd ever think he'd be getting saved by _Konohamaru_ of all people.

Konohamaru knelt by the fuel, clinching his eyes closed tightly.

"Well since you did come all the way out here, I'll give you an option." Reedamaru said. "You can die by the knife or Jutsu."

"What? Only 2 options? Not much of a choice is it."

Itachi watched as Konohamaru's body rushed with a sudden flow of Chakra, it surprised him a bit that he'd already mastered most of it under Kisame's training. There was still some he hadn't triggered though.

Konohamaru held his hand toward the liquid and watched the white energy drift down on to it. "Itachi? ….Are we going to die?"

Itachi shook his head, "No… they are." The fuel ignited and a stream of flames started to flow over the liquid, under the door and along the stream toward the barrels outside the door

Reedamaru started doing a set of Hand seals "Goodbye Hoshigaki Kisame." Chakra started to flow in his body, it seemed like the end, time was up "Thanks for coming."

Just as Reedamaru was about to do the Jutsu, the barrels filled with fuel on the floor under him exploded. Fire ripped through the ground between them and the force sent Reedamaru and Kisame flying back. Reedamaru landed against the wall and Kisame went flying through the ceiling and landed against a tree outside.

With the chair smashed, his chains fell off. Kisame looked up at the sudden sound of footsteps, seeing a Ninja running after him. With out a second thought he picked up the Kunai next to his crotch and tossed at the man, hitting him in the next. "Damn that hurt! You couldn't think of something less painful Itachi."

Kisame let out a small sigh of relief and then one of pain because most of his body was hurting…a lot. An he was a lot more bloody then when he started.


	19. Chapter 19: Conspiracy in Akatsuki’s ran...

Chapter 19: Conspiracy in Akatsuki's ranks Finale

Itachi and Konohamaru emerged from the underground base, in the middle of a frantic scramble by men to get everything ready. They heard Reedamaru's voice over the speakers again.

"Listen up, Nothing changes. Take the bomb to the designated area, dump the body 2 miles away and get the hell out of there."

Itachi lifted Konohamaru on to his back and dashed through the flurry of men with his newly reclaimed sword in his hand. A hunter jumped at with a blur of speed and three Kunai's in his hand, Itachi crouched down some so the man flew over him and thrust his sword upward in to the man's stomach.

Itachi pulled the sword down and swiped it to his side so that the man approaching from that direction ran into it, pulling it out Itachi kicked the hunter in front of him, knocking him to the ground and plunging his sword into his chest. It was quickly obvious that there was way to many of them to keep track of when Konohamaru was struck with a Kunai in his side and knocked off of Itachi's back.

Konohamaru let out a small cry of pain when he hit the ground, his hand automatically going to the object embedded into his body. It hurt like hell, but Konohamaru refused to acknowledge that in front of Itachi. So he pulled it out, unable to stifle a loud grunt of pain that resulted. He just kept his gaze upward so he wouldn't see the blood.

Konohamaru jumped to his feet, using the balance technique Kisame taught him because he couldn't afford to fall here. Itachi quickly tuned around and tried to grab him but even he wasn't fast enough to reach him before an explosive tag erupted in-between the two.

By the time the smoke cleared Konohamaru had disappeared, his small body launched to some unknown part of the facility. "Damnit!" Itachi looked around, finding the odds had just gotten worse due to reinforcements arriving. About a hundred or so more ninjas.

"Itachi!" Kisame yelled as quietly as he could manage from a few hundred feet away near the woods surrounding the faculty. He was in the process of taking out anyone else who'd manage to hear him.

With his usual speed Itachi appeared next to Kisame, taking out a few people on the way. They moved behind a few trees so not to draw more attention to themselves. "I saw where Konohamaru thrown too, he landed near where they're loading the bomb. He fell in to one of boxes with the explosive tags inside"

The bomb was composed of 6 smaller boxes with the explosive tags inside, all loaded in to a much larger box with the heating mechanism. The smaller boxes acted as stabilizers so that tags would explode only when the heating mechanism allowed them too. Konohamaru was safe, as safe as he could be in the core of a bomb. And the larger box was a thick steel case about 6 inches thick, There was no way Konohamaru could get himself out.

Konohamaru looked around in the darkness, surrounded by explosive tags. "Why me?" He yelled "What are the odds!"

"I'm going to get him." Kisame said, the thought never crossed his mind that they had a free chance to escape and leave Konohamaru to die.

"You'll be killed." Itachi said, no room for doubt on this issue.

"Then cover me! What are you good for." Kisame held two Kunais in his hand that'd he taken from other ninjas, he'd have to find his sword which was still near the hole they fell into when they got captured the first time. It was in his path so he could easily pick it up on his way to Konohamaru.

With out another word he leapt out of the trees, landing on the edge of the facility. He ran towards the bomb on the other side, thrusting a Kunai into one Ninja's stomach while he moved forward. Itachi's cover started to come when a Shrunken launched from his current position, striking one hunter in the head in front of Kisame.

More and more started to come after him, luckily Kisame was able to retrieve his sword. Slamming the dull side into 6 men in font of him and knocking them away. Itachi took out as many as he could to prevent back attacks. Finally he decided to take a more direct approach and use Kage Bunshin no Jutsu.

Copies of Itachi sprang up around Kisame, exploding as soon as anyone made contact with them. Though only taking out 3 or 4 at a time it was a great help. But still the odds were over whelming and walls of Kunais and Shrunkens were flying at Kisame.

Kisame blocked as many and he could, but one slipped past and struck his stomach. Kisame involuntarily flinched, letting a few more get past his defense and hit him in the stomach and arm. He dropped the sword and fell back, a few more Kunais striking his leg and stomach until the hunter-nins deemed him dead 'Damnit…this is it! I screwed up.'

Feeling consciousness fading, Kisame looked up to see what he fell on to. It was another box, the side was open so he could see the man from the Leaf that used to be in the freezer. They'd be dump him before the bomb exploded… speaking of freezer, Kisame could feel his body getting cold…

"Damnit!" Itachi growled, Kisame was dead and Konohamaru was about to die a very painful death. The men had already started moving the bomb and had gotten a good distance away. At lest Itachi could still save Konohamaru…after he did that he felt another Uchiha clan incident starting.

Itachi moved along the open road through the open fields in pursuit of the 10 men carrying the bomb. It wasn't more then a few minutes before he had them in his sites, with Kunai in hand he moved in a blur of speed behind the man in the back, cutting his throat and tossing his body away.

The other 9 were instantly alerted that something was wrong when the felt the back left side of the steel case started to lag. But Itachi was no where insight leaving no trace of the other carrier.

The man on the front left side was knocked way by a Kunai to the side of his head, "What the hell!" One of the men shouted looking around uneasily, making his steps more careful as they approached a steep hill. Every man on the right side suddenly fell dead with different injuries leaving only 3 ninjas behinds.

They couldn't come close to carrying that type of weight and immediately dropped it. One of the men abruptly turned back to get reinforcements while the other two were mowed down by the bomb gaining speed on it's steep downhill decent.

Itachi landed on top of the seal case, easily having enough balance to stand on it. Unfortunately the side that opened was the one on the ground creating sparks, since there was no way in hell Itachi would be able to stop this thing he would have to ride it out to the bottom.

Which wasn't easy because with no way to steer, the bomb was heading off the road in to the woods. The path got a lot rougher, Itachi clinched both sides in an effort to stay on even as he was being ran through thick tree branches and just about everything else the small patch of wooded land could throw at him.

The trees became less and less frequent, disappearing all together to reveal a large bolder sitting at the edge of a cliff. "Hold on Konohamaru!" Itachi yelled, just as the bomb smashed into the bolder was sent flying over the cliff. Itachi was knocked off, dropping about 500 feet and landing on his head on a bridge below where the path continued.

The bomb landed next to him, sliding to a stop on the concrete a few feet later.

With a grunt of pain, Itachi climbed to his feet and ran over to the steel case. Luckily the side that opened was right side up so Itachi easily opened it. "Konohamaru?"

"Itachi?" a weak, muffled voice came from the box on the top, all of the boxes were more then large enough to fit Konohamaru inside giving some idea of how large the bomb really was. Thankful that it hadn't exploded, Itachi opened it and pulled the boy out.

As soon as Itachi set him on his feet, Konohamaru fell to the ground with heavy breaths and a disoriented look. "I'm ok…" He said, lifted his hand to the wounded part of the back of his head. He hadn't passed out yet. "Where's Kisame."

Itachi ignored the question intentionally, grabbing Konohamaru by the hand and pulling him forward "We need to move. Now." He said firmly. Knowing that Reedamaru and his Ninjas were on his trail and would be here any second…..It looked like it was that second because Reedamaru was the first person to arrive, landing right in front of Itachi.

Reedamaru was fast, faster then Itachi and more or less equal in strength.

"Your getting really annoying." He said, pulling out a Kunai. "And your suppose to be the genius of the Uchiha clan. You know with in-minutes this place will be swarming with my people and your still here…Not to say you'll be a live that long." Reedamaru rushed at him in a blur of speed, thrusting the Knife at Itachi. Itachi took a step back and grabbed his arm, Reedamaru threw a punch with his free hand only to have it taken hold of by Itachi.

"The heating mechanism process on your bomb's been started. You only have 5 minutes, you'll never make it out of here alive." Itachi said, squeezing down on Reedamaru's arm and drawing a hiss of pain from him. Reedamaru jumped up as far as he could, sending both feet into Itachi's face and knocking him away.

"Yeah whatever." It seemed as soon as Reedamaru lifted his hands to do the seal, his fire jutsu was unleashed on Itachi. A burst of flames flew from his mouth, engulfing Itachi completely, his jutsu rate was as fast or even faster then Itachi's. Speaking of which Itachi's body melted into a pool of water.

Reedamaru felt a knife plunge into his back from Itachi and what a was apparently a clone exploded on his contact, knocking Itachi a few feet away into the steel casing of the bomb.

2 Kunai's flew down from above at the Uchiha, watching the direction they came from, Itachi was able to get a momentary glimpse of the real Reedamaru sitting on top of the cliff they'd just fallen from right before he moved.

Itachi grabbed the two Kunais before they could strike him, quickly tossing them in the air behind him. Reedamaru was attempting to sneak up on him from the back but he was struck in the arm before he could even touch the ground.

Itachi tried to go after him while he was stunned, but he found that his body was frozen to the ground by a layer of invisible ice. Reedamaru had did a Jutsu while he was 'stunned' in the air. "Should have ran while had the chance…Maybe I should just get rid of the kid trying to creep up behind me." Reedamaru said with a smirk. Looking over his shoulder at Konohamaru now petrified that he'd been found out so quickly..

Reedamaru turned around and Konohamaru started walking backwards nervously. But Reedamaru was much faster, grabbing Konohamaru by the head and lifting him into the air. "Should have ran kid." He said, pulling a Kunai from his wrist and thrusting it towards Konohamaru's stomach.

Konohamaru grinned sheepishly, his body going up in a cloud of smoke revealing Itachi. Who easily grabbed a this time truly stunned Reedamaru's hand, then pulling him in and sending a sharp knee to his stomach and sending him flying with a punch to the face.

Just before he went over the bridge, Reedamaru saw 'Itachi' who'd he frozen go up in smoke revealing none other then his own son Konohamaru. The Jutsu wore off as soon as the man was out of view and Konohamaru, now able to move, looked back at Itachi…."What's wrong?"

"Stay back!" Itachi shouted, lifting his hands to his stomach and involuntarily hunching over. The sound of Ninjas approaching could be heard in the direction they fell from before, Konohamaru looked towards them, seeing about 30 or so, 2 of them carrying a large box that had the body of the man from Konoha they were supposed to dump around here

Itachi's body erupted in a powerful explosion and his body went up in flames, Reedamaru had hit him with a Jutsu before he knocked him over the bridge. It looked painful… The fire surrounding Itachi's body faded, leaving him barely standing on his feet. "Konohamaru! Run!" He said.

Konohamaru ran over to him, "What about you!" He asked frantically.

"I'll be right behind you! Go!" Itachi gave him a nudge toward the opposite direction and Konohamaru started running, no doubt in his mind that Itachi was coming. As soon as the boy was a safe distance away Itachi fell face first to the ground "live…"

Konohamaru got a good distance away, wondering why there were none of Reedamaru's men coming from this direction. "What's going on?" Konohamaru looked back towards Itachi, seeing that he was down he automatically turned around and ran back to him knelling beside him.

"Itachi! Itachi!" He shook him hard, rolling him over on to his back then abruptly pulling his hands back from the heat still on his body. Itachi laid there with his eyes half-lidded and his mouth slightly open slightly. Completely dazed and out of it…Itachi, dazed and out of it?…this didn't seem real.

Konohamaru shook him harder, ignoring the fact that more and more Ninjas were arriving. They kept their distance though, they didn't know when the bomb would blow.

Finally the boy jumped on top his chest and grabbed him by the collar and shaking him. "Get up!" He yelled, tears starting to burn into his eyes from the silence he got as a reply. "Don't you die! Get up! Don't you die on me!" Konohamaru shouted.

Konohamaru drew his arm back and sent a punch across Itachi's face with no response. "Stop being a baby! Get up!" More and more tears fell from his eyes as he threw another punch, and another. "Life is pain, you just get use to it!" Konohamaru shouted, letting a sob escape.

"Get up!" Konohamaru shook Itachi by his collar with one hand before throwing one last punch. "get up…" Konohamaru's grip grew weaker and he finally gave up, burying his face in Itachi's neck and cried…

Itachi lifted his arm and wrapped it around Konohamaru's back before sitting up. He looked down and watched The boy's face light up, he immediately hugged Itachi as hard as he could. "You know when this is over I might have to give you some _training_ of my own." To anyone else this would have been a threat knowing he meant he would just vent his anger.

Konohamaru just laughed relivedly and hugged him tighter before climbing off…and realizing that his hands and shirt were covered with Itachi's blood. His eyes widened and his body shuttered. 'No…This is not the time for this….ahhhh….'

Konohamaru tried to wipe his hands off on his shirt but the wound he'd gotten from a kunai earlier had the side of his shirt soaked with his own blood and only added to the effect. He started trying to wipe it off with his hands but that only spread it. Until finally he completely lost all self control, he frantically tried to get the blood off but it stayed there, hunting him.

Finally Itachi knelt down by him and wrapped his arms around Konohamaru, holding his hands down to his side so he couldn't move. "Calm down…" Itachi said.

Finally realizing what he was doing, Konohamaru stopped, just hoping the rain would wash it away. "Alright." Konohamaru said, Itachi let go of him, looking around uneasily and seeing that they were surrounded by Ninjas a good distance away from the bomb.

With a small cough and deep breaths Reedamaru emerged from the water. Climbing up the cliff until he reached the bridge's level, then jumping on to it, landing behind the barricaded of men that were posted at the beginning of the structure.

He snatched one of the holder of the nearest person. "I'm not leaving until I know those bastards are dead." Reedamaru shouted angrily, leaping towards Itachi and Konohamaru with the rest of his forces following.

Itachi looked around at the charging ninjas… well they were charging from one side, the men on the other side were heading in the opposite direction seemingly pre-occupied with a threat of there own. "Damn, we don't have time for this! That bomb is going to go off in 2 minutes."

There was no way they could stand against those odds, but they got help from and unexpected source. The surrounded box containing the dead shinobi of Konoha exploded, from the flames and smoke Kisame charged through with Samehada in hand. "You can't kill me! I wont die off of weaklings like you!"

Kisame rushed through the unsuspecting force of Ninjas, plowing most of them down with his sword and stealing their Charka. "Kisame!" Itachi said with a bit of surprise and what sounded like happiness.

The man slid to a stop in front of him and Konohamaru. "Come on! We have to go!" he said abruptly. Only to have to lift his sword to block a Kunai, Itachi pulled him and Konohamaru behind the bomb, using it as cover from projectiles or any jutsu too explosive, no one was that stupid.

"I have to get Reedamaru off of us, I'll take him down you cover me." Itachi said, jumping out from behind the bomb and leaping in to the air, tossing a few Shrunkens at Reedamaru. Reedamaru took a deep breath and blew out a wave of fire similar to the one before only the flames were black. A pillar of water of water shot upward from under Reedamaru, extinguishing the flames just as Itachi got close. The Uchiha threw a strong kick at Reedamaru, who grabbed his leg and slammed him to the ground.

Reedamaru drew another Kunai from the holder "Burn in hell dumbass!" He shouted, thrusting the knife at Itachi's head. Itachi lifted his hand and grabbed Reedamaru's letting the knife slide safely in-between his fingers.

Itachi pulling Reedamaru's hand behind his back and brought him face to face with him. "Since you suggested it." He said, opening his eyes wider and using Tsujiyomi on Reedamaru. "For 3 minutes you will be burning in a lake of fire...don't worry, more then enough time to occupy you until the bomb detonates."

His body fell limp under the Sharingan jutsu and Itachi easily tossed him away, landing on top of the bomb might as well being unconscious.

Kisame was still fighting off the last of Reedamaru's ninjas, noticing that the last of them were retreating, indicating that the bomb was near detonation. "I could have sworn there were more of these guys." He said, watching Konohamaru walk to his side solemn after taking down two men in the confusion.

Suddenly Kiba's body came flying into Kisame, knocking both of them to the ground. "What the hell…You!" Kisame yelled noticing who it was.

"Kiba!" Konohamaru shouted with a shocked voice.

"Konohamaru?" Kiba said in disbelief, jumping off of Kisame abruptly and holding both hands to his left side "Gatsuuga!" He thrust his hands forward, sending a nearly invisible blast at an approaching hunter and knocking him off the bridge.

"Konohamaru!" Sasuke's voice rang from the opposite direction, charging towards him full speed with Neji just behind.

"Sasuke!" Konohamaru sprang at him, hugging tightly "Your alright!"

Sasuke hugged him back…until he realized that Itachi was a few feet away from him. Konohamaru immediately noticed what was about to happen when he saw Sasuke's anger flare before his eyes. "You Bastard!" Sasuke yelled, running towards him.

"Sasuke! No Stop!" Konohamaru shouted, running after him. "We have to get out of here, that things a bomb! A really big one!"

Neji knelt down next to the steel case, ignoring the incapacitated Reedamaru as he opened it. Just looking inside it took him two seconds to realize how it worked. He reached out and held his hand over the heating mechanism, which was extremely hot. "We don't have anytime! This bomb is about to explode right now!" He called out waving everyone in the other direction.

"You better run kid!" Kisame said, taking off once he saw that Konohamaru was following. Itachi wordlessly leapt after them followed closely by Sasuke. Kiba and Neji were just ahead in the lead.

They only got a few feet before the bomb exploded, and for a split second the sound of Reedamaru screaming could be heard.

The flames were amazingly quick, tearing through the bridge and chasing after the group. "Where not going to make it!" Konohamaru shouted, already able to feel the heat at his back. He was right, only Itachi was fast enough to make it away, and he wasn't planning on leaving Kisame and Konohamaru.

He and Sasuke seemed to have the same idea, both of them diving toward the boy "Konohamaru!" There voices called at the same time, both of them grabbing on to the boy, Sasuke from the front and Itachi from the back. Covering him as the flames engulfed their bodies….


	20. Chapter 20: Now things get complicated

Chapter 20: Now…things get complicated

"What happened to you two?"

Neji was awakened by the sound of a familiar voice that managed to stir him back into consciousness. He heard that concerned voice again egging up to wake up followed by another small shake. With retuning consciousness also came the awareness of pain, Neji groaned feeling like his body had just been on fire…Now that he started to remember what happened he realized his body _had been_ on fire.

Before he could even think of how bad this pain was he thought of someone else "Kiba…" Neji slowly opened the pallid eyes to a blurry image of Iruka knelling over him.

"He's alright." Iruka said, tilting Neji's head which he was apparently cradling towards Kiba laying barely conscious a few feet away. "What happened?"

Neji sat up, climbing shakily to his feet. His vision seemed to be doing Byakugan though he didn't start it, the blood line was working on it's own and he couldn't seem to stop it. The good thing was that it wasn't using up any Chakra this time and still had the full effect. 'It's…just like before when I got struck by the lighting…Maybe it's serous injury that starts this effect?'

Of course with the effect he could see Kakashi standing over Kiba, and that they were miles away from the bridge, he could see it off in the distance. Neji walked over to Kiba who even unconscious still held a tight grip on Akamaru. "Ka-Kakashi-Sensei? Where's Neji?" He asked.

"Right here." Neji said weakly, knelling beside him and almost falling as he did so. "You shielded me from the blast…"

"Heh heh, you saw that huh?" Kiba said with a small smirk, he was trying to get up but his body just didn't seem to listen to him. He'd taken to much damage, it was just to much of a strain to move a lot right now.

Neji pointed to his unwillingly Byakugan enabled eyes, "Thank you." He said gratefully, if it wasn't for him Neji knew he wouldn't be off the ground right now.

"Well, I couldn't help you when you got struck by lighting, I wanted to make it up to you." Kiba said, looking strait up at Kakashi who had been silent the whole time.

"What happened?" He asked, lifting Kiba on to his shoulders.

"I'll tell you on the way, we have to find Sasuke and Konohamaru."

Konohamaru lay between the two Uchihas, Itachi still on his right and Sasuke still on his left. He felt that Itachi's hold was still firm but Sasuke's was lose, not existent. "Sa…Sasuke?" Konohamaru fought to stay conscious having taken a way too hard blow to the back of his head.

They lay at the very edge of the bridge, in fact Itachi being the tallest was hanging halfway of the broken concrete. Chucks of debris were braking off into the water making them slip farther and farther over the edge.

Konohamaru looked over to the younger Uchiha to find that he was out cold and his back on fire. "Sasuke!" The boy jumped out of Itachi's grasp, looking over Sasuke franticly trying to figure out a way to put out the flames. Sasuke had taken more of the damage shielding Konohamaru then Itachi had.

Itachi pulled himself up, seeing that they'd landed just before the point where the bridge connected to land. Kisame had been thrown past them a few feet away on to actual land and despite the fact that he was still on the ground he was somewhat alright. He was even awake.

"Sasuke!" Konohamaru tried to shake him but of course the fire kept him at bay. A rush of water rushed up from the ground and extinguished the flames, Konohamaru immediately looked back at Itachi who was looking down at his brother uncaringly. "Thank you!" Konohamaru said gratefully, but the smile quickly faded from his face when he saw the look of disregard and almost determination when Itachi looked at his brother.

That expression had apparent undertones that Konohamaru could easily see. He looked deeper, finding that same darkness from before when Itachi first used the Sharingan on him. Having it being use on him so much and his bond with Sasuke he'd developed a sixth sense to distinguish on Uchiha from the just by Sharingan. "Itachi?"

Itachi just turned and began walking away, he was definitely thinking about something. "Konohamaru, don't come too close." His voice was deadly serous now.

Konohamaru was reminded of what Itachi did, Sasuke had told him one day. Itachi really was quite evil, despite how nice he was to Konohamaru. "Itachi…" Konohamaru said then thought better of it, despite what he did Konohamaru still liked him. "Really, thank you."

Itachi extended a hand to Kisame and pulled him up while Konohamaru watched solemnly from where he was, not daring to take a step forward. Itachi glanced back at him with a small smirk "No matter what I say or do, wont hurt you." Itachi said before leaping off with his usual speed.

Kisame looked in his direction and smirked "And he said I was attached to you. Well anyway I gotta go, See ya around kid."

"Promise?" Konohamaru asked with a inquisitive expression, he wanted to find out of Kisame really liked him or just tolerated him until they found Itachi..

"Heh, why not kid." Kisame said just before giving Reedamaru's mock salute and going after Itachi.

"See ya Boss!" Konohamaru waved with a sheepish smile on his face. 'What was that spouse to mean?' Then he turned back to Sasuke who seemed to be just waking up.

"Kono-Konohamaru." He said, slowly opening his eyes and straining to sit up. Konohamaru helped him.

"Sasuke! I knew you'd come for me." Konohamaru said happily, hugging him tightly and forcing him to wince in pain from the contact to his wounds.

"Your safe…did they-"

"They didn't hurt me." Konohamaru said. "They didn't do anything to me, Kisame even gave me some training."

Sasuke looked around for any sign of the two, finding none he focused all of himself on to Konohamaru. "I missed you." Talking this way with anyone still felt strange for Sasuke, he'd probably never get use to it but he could endure the uncomfortable feeling for Konohamaru.

"Me too…When I heard Konoha was destroyed…" Konohamaru clinched him tighter.

"I'm alright, I just had to find you." Sasuke said, wrapping his arms around the boyand pulling him into a kiss. He couldn't describe how much he'd missed this, how it felt to think he'd never have this again.

"Aww, How cute."

Sasuke pulled back, glaring past Konohamaru when he heard the familiar voice of Kakashi behind him. Then he remembered it was a _good_ thing he was alive, just not at this particular moment. "Kakashi-sensei, what are you doing here?" Sasuke didn't bother to look back at him, Konohamaru only laughed.

"Watching you two."

"_How _did you get here?"

Kakashi ran one hand through his hair, apparently smiling from his visible eye "That's the confusing part…I not exactly sure. Ask Iruka." Kakashi pointed behind him to Iruka who was helping Kiba walk with Neji.

"Wait." Sasuke stood up "If you're here, where is Gaara and Naruto and everyone else that was with you?"

Iruka sighed, "We were going back in time to prevent that storm…"

Sasuke looked at Konohamaru, both of them had already realized that storm was never supposed to happen. Iruka continued "Halfway through something went wrong and we ended up separated, Me and Kakashi landed in this time 2 minutes ago."

"So if you were together when it happened, wouldn't you end up at the same time?" Kiba asked.

"No Kiba, Iruka means Naruto and Gaara as well as Lee and Shikamaru could be an any time. There's no way of finding them." Neji said.

"Well you guys ended up here, If Gaara's with Naruto then they can find there way back." Konohamaru said, remembering that Gaara control time with sand, he wasn't in short supply of that.

"So what do we do now?" Kiba asked.

"I have a general idea." Kakashi pointed upwards to where something orange was falling from the sky…screaming very loudly.

"Whaaaaaaaaaaa!" It was none other then Naruto, he had Gaara were still drifting through time and just like all the other times before when they entered this time period it started with them falling from the sky. Naruto, falling head first, flipped right side up and landed on his feet, Gaara landing behind him a few seconds latter.

"Naruto!" Iruka left Kiba with Neji and ran over to him.

"Iruka-sensei, Kakashi-sensei? Your alright?" Naruto said, He and Gaara both seemed to be looking around paranoid in nature for something.

"Why are you sinking in to the ground?" Konohamaru asked, walking up to the nearest person which was Gaara and attempting to pull him up.

"No! Don't!" Gaara tried to stop him but it was too late, Konohamaru had touched him and his body started to sinking into the ground just like they were. "We're falling through time and we seemed to be moving forward."

Sasuke seeing this, grabbed the ankle deep Konohamaru by the shoulders and attempted to pull him up. But he started sinking as well. "What's going on?" He asked nervously.

"I think the same effect that happens when I move through time is happening here." Gaara said.

"Let me guess, the one where we have to be touching you to go with you?" Iruka said, watching curiously as Konohamaru walked around even through his body was ankle deep in concrete. He was like a ghost.

"Yeah, and guess what thing touched us?" Naruto said, clearly not joking.

Kakashi's eyes went wide and he looked toward when he realized what he was talking about. "The Kyubi?"

"Yeah, and I think it's hungry." Naruto said, moving behind Sasuke, Gaara and Konohamaru and pushing them off the remaining piece of the bridge. Just before something else fell from the sky in a blur of orange fur, crashing into the water about where the center of the bridge used to be.

"You can't stop it?" Kakashi asked.

Gaara shook his head "No, I don't have an hourglass so I can't stop the effect." He said, his gaze steadily on the water where the Nine-Tails had just fallen.

Konohamaru didn't know exactly what was going on, the fact that he was sinking through the ground didn't even seem real. It may have been because he was about to pass out but what was happening to him didn't register completely. What did register was what Gaara said. "Why don't you make one?"

"And _how_ am I supposed to do that?" Gaara asked.

"Kisame taught me how to shape Chakra, why don't you make one out of sand?"

Gaara looked at the boy thoughtfully, that idea never occurred because he'd never tried to shape the sand into anything this complex. He usual just let it move naturally when he used it to attack, he wasn't sure if he could do it "I don't know if can do something like this."

Sand started to rise out of his gourd, more then enough to serve his purpose.

"How much time do you think it will take?" Iruka asked, watching the water start to bubble up.

"I'm not sure." Gaara started trying to shape the sand, it was hard getting into any other form then a mass. He started to concentrate, trying shape it down some, it was harder then he expected " It may take a while."

Iruka sighed and touched Gaara on his back "Then you'll need a distraction."

Kakashi shrugged and wrapped his arms around Iruka "He's right, looks like we're going to have to keep away from Gaara until he can do it."

"I'm going too." Kiba said, reaching out to touch Kakashi.

Neji pulled him back out of reach "You can't go, your too injured. You wont stand a chance."

"Doesn't matter, I have to help." Kiba pushed forward abruptly, breaking out of Neji's hold and touching Kakashi's back.

"Kiba…" Neji shook his head and laid his hand on Kiba's back, "Looks like it's my turn to protect you." He sighed, using his still enabled Byakugan to look around them.

"What do you see?" Kakashi asked.

Neji walked over to the edge of the bridge and tilted his head downward, "It's…swimming towards the surface, it doesn't look like it's a very good swimmer but it is defiantly coming back up for us…I wish this lake was deeper."

Sasuke knelt down beside Konohamaru, "This is dangerous, make sure you listen carefully because when it gets here I wont have time to say things twice." Konohamaru nodded, he didn't even know what the Nine-Tails was but he figured it had to be pretty bad to have everyone on edge like this. "Alright, come on."

Sasuke lift Konohamaru on his back and started running in the opposite direction, to get him as far away as possible.


	21. Chapter 21: The heat is on part 4

Chapter 21: The heat is on part 4

This chapter is going to be directly connected to Chapter 21 in 'Naruto: The sands of time'.

And this seems like an honorable mention, both series are coming to an end in the next chapter or so. I promised myself that both stories wouldn't go over 130 pages and I'm at 119 right now. Don't worry, there's going to be a sequel to both of them, and both of them are going to be better then the original!

I never guessed that the Team from Sands of time would end up staying in Water (minus Lee and Shikamaru and you'll see why in this chapter) And I'm the author. Go figure.

"Gaara?" Naruto jumped backwards through yet another thick forest, landing in front of Gaara who was still trying. "Getting anywhere?"

Gaara opened one clinched eye and nodded "I'm getting better at this." He said, pointed to the sand floating above him. It shaped into a nearly perfect block the size of his body which he was trying to shape down. "This whole process is mental, if I can just…" Gaara clinched his eyes shut again, knowing he was taking a big risk by staying in one spot. He had no choice but to depend on everyone else to keep the Nine-tails away from him.

"Hurry!" Naruto said, finding he was already waist deep in to the ground. He moved away from Gaara so he wouldn't draw attention to him, running to Kakashi who was facing the Kyubi head on. But he was a good 25 feet away from it and Iruka was behind the demon, far out of reach of it's tails to avoid them. The key to this fight was to attack from different sides to keep the demon fox from getting to close to one person.

It was far from easy. But luckily the fox was easy to fool.

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" Naruto clasped his hands together, quickly performing the seals and creating 6 or so copies of himself. He used the jutsu at level to conserved Chakra, he'd need every bit of it he could get.

The copies sprang forward in front of Kakashi, tossing a line of Kunais and Shrunkens at the demon. The fox growled and turned around abruptly, whipping it's tails and knocking them away in one single movement. Then it sprang forward at Naruto and Kakashi with it's amazing speed.

"Retsu ha geki!" Iruka thrust his hands forward and sent a blast wind at the Nine-tails, it engulfed the Demon, swallowing it in an air current that tore at it's body. Kyubi turned on it's hind legs and rushed at Iruka, pouncing on his body and digging it's claws into his torso and legs. With mouth open wide Kyubi went for his face.

Iruka smirked, his body going up in a cloud of smoke that revealed 3 explosive tags just as The nine tails bit into 'Iruka' only to have an explosion erupt in his mouth and the overwhelming smell of thick black smoke filled it's nose and throat.

Kyuubi stumbled back with eyes watering and nose burning, the momentary distraction giving all of them time to regroup.

"Naruto!" Neji called, running over to the boy and his copies standing in front Gaara defensively. "Let me use two of your clones. "

"Huh? How?" Naruto asked confusedly.

"We don't have much time, I'm going to use Henge to change them into copies of the Nine-Tails. You can use them to distract it."

Naruto nodded and two of his clones stood in front of him, with his Byakugan still in effect Neji watched Kyuubi behind him while he preformed the Jutsu "Henge no Jutsu!" In a rush of air and smoke the two Naruto's changed into two Nine-tails.

The two Naruto foxes dashed at the real Nine-Tails giving everyone else time to regroup. Iruka lifted Kiba in to his arms just as they sunk completely into the ground and out of that time period. This time they fell through a blue sky on to a field surrounding a huge city, one that looked as if it was from far in to the future.

"Come on." Iruka said, spring forward as soon as he landed. Kiba didn't complain being much too weak to move on his own.

Kyuubi whipped it's tails at the first cloned fox, turning it in to a poof of smoke. Then it sprang on the other's back and bit the copy on it's neck, releasing the Justus. With fluid motions the fox went after the closest person to him, which was Iruka.

"Iruka-sensei! We have a problem!" Kiba said hastily, Iruka looked back to see the fox charging after him. With Kiba in his arms he couldn't do any hand seals, there was no way in hell he'd drop Kiba to do so. Iruka grunted, his mind racing frantically to thing of something to throw off the gaining fox.

"Akamaru, ready?"

Iruka looked down at Kiba who was doing hand seals with Akamaru on his chest. "Kiba?"

"Iruka-Sensei, move.-Akamaru, Gijyu Ninpo." Kiba said, Iruka dropped the two as Akamaru changed into a huge white wolf with long claws and dripping fangs. Kiba stumbled to his feet "Soutourou!" The two went up into a big cloud of smoke.

The smoke was sucked away revealing the same wolf only much bigger and with two heads. The beast was spinning in a dizzying blur, flying strait forward in to the surprised Kyuubi managing to catch it off guard and knock it to the ground.

Kyuubi roared fiercely at Kiba and Akamaru pressing it down and drilling in to it's stomach. It rolled, smacking them away with it's paws easily. "Ungh!" The Jutsu was released on impact, sending Kiba and Akamaru clinched tightly in his arms flying through the air at a high speed.

"Kiba!" Neji dashed after him with all the speed he could gather, diving backwards and catching him out of the air. Then landing hard on the ground and sliding to a stop a few feet later.

"Neji…Good catch." Kiba said weakly, managing to smirk before all of the injuries became to much and he passed out. He didn't even see that Kyuubi began ignoring Iruka completely and was coming for them. With his arms wrapped around Kiba's waist, Neji lifted the boy off the ground and tried to get away.

It was no use, the Nine-Tails was way too fast. Iruka ran after the fox, "Full power Retsu ha geki!" With outward hands, Iruka sent an intense funnel of wind over the Nine-Tails, the tearing air ripped in to the fox drawing blood on numerous places on it's body. Kyuubi wasn't deterred by the attack, with a simple expelling of Chakra it broke through the Jutsu now only a few feet away from Neji and Kiba.

'Damnit!' Neji shouted to himself, so close he could feel the Demon's breath on his body. Out of nowhere Kakashi rammed them out of the way and ended up with his body between the Fox's jaws before his feet could touch the ground. But this only proved more that the Fox was easy to fool, which gave them some advantage.

'Kakashi' melted into a pool of water, only making the Kyuubi much more angry. Before it could retaliate a Chidori jutsu tore through the ground and struck the fox in the side of the head forcing it to stumble back a few steps. The source was Sasuke standing about 10 feet away with Konohamaru behind him. Apparently the demon had caught up with him while he was trying to get the boy some place safe.

Kyuubi was about to go after them when it felt a small poke in it's back, the fox looked back to see the real Kakashi jumping back out of range of it's tails. Leaving behind a kunai with an explosive tag attached to the handle. It abruptly detonated, knocking the fox forward and engulfing it in a cloud of flying dirt and smoke.

"I got it!"

Everyone looked back towards Gaara who had a perfect hourglass made of sand floating in front of it. The glass about the size of his body started to spin but quickly stopped after one rotation and fell in to dust.

They stopped falling through the ground and moving forward through time, along with the Kyuubi. With just of his Chakra gone from the hard trial and error processes and the mental strain, Gaara collapsed, falling to his knees. It was clear he wouldn't be taking them through time again any time soon.

Naruto ran over to him "Are you alright?"

Gaara nodded, "I'm out of Chakra…I'm not going to be able to take the Nine-Tails back."

Gaara and Naruto looked up when they no longer heard the Nine-Tails, it seemed the destructive demon had found something a little bit more interesting. Since it's main mentally was to destroy, it was heading for the city. "Great! How are we going to stop it now?" Naruto said worriedly.

"We lure it away from the city." Iruka told him, wasting no time going after the Fox. Kakashi solemnly went after him, though he didn't know where he was or was this place worth the effort. Not like they were going anywhere soon anyway.

Neji lifted Kiba on to his shoulders as Konohamaru ran over to them. "What are we going to do now?" The boy asked, watching the Nine-Tails head for the city.

"You stay here." Sasuke said, looking back at Gaara who wasn't going to move anytime soon.

"Aww man." Konohamaru sighed, letting his body fall back into a sitting position and resting his head in his head.

"Gaara." Sasuke looked back at the boy who seemed to understand.

"Alright." Gaara nodded and agreed to make sure Konohamaru didn't leave, knowing his nature he'd run after Sasuke as soon as he wasn't in eye sight.

"I'll stay behind too." Neji said, obviously staying to take care of an unconscious Kiba.

Sasuke nodded and leapt after Iruka and Kakashi.

"It's too fast!" Iruka shouted, trying to stay in distance of the egger demon but it was nearly impossible.

"Iruka…?"

Iruka stopped turned around to see Kakashi had stopped near a sign at what appeared to be the city limits. "What?"

"This is…Konoha…in the future…" Kakashi said in disbelief, looking past the sign at the amazingly large Metropolis that he hadn't noticed how big it was until now.

Iruka took one last glimpse over the city 3 times larger then what it was in the past. "Look's it came back stronger then ever." Seemed like there was hope for the Leaf yet.

There attentions were brought back to the situation at hand when a loud explosion erupted from the Nine-Tail's direction. A highway bridge had been completely demolished, including a Gasoline truck that sent a field under it up in a fuel fire. If it liked to destroy Konoha before it would have a ball now.

Kakashi and Iruka dashed through the field, jumping over the fire and to the severed overpass. Almost being hit by a red convertible in the process, the driver slammed on the breaks abruptly and turned to the right forcing the car to swerve sideway and slid to a stop a few feet away.

None other then Gai emerged followed by Lee and Shikamaru. "Iruka-Sensei? Kakashi-Sensei?" Lee asked questioningly, recoiling them as the ones from the past.

"Lee? Shikamaru? What are you doing here?" Iruka ran over to them abruptly, only to be knocked back by a Fire jutsu from the Nine-tails below. Severing the concrete bridge even more and stopping just short of Gai's car. Kakashi jumped from the other side, catching the man out of the air and landing on the other side of the bridge.

"Is that the Nine-Tails?" Shikamaru asked fearfully, watching the orange fox run under the remaining part of the bridge and into a nearby store, which was abruptly turned to rubble

"Yeah, it's the same one." Kakashi told him.

"Wait, you two must be from the past also." Gai said after standing idly for a few seconds "Well then what is that thing and how did a fox do _this_?" Gai looked down at bridge and then back at the approaching cars coming to a halt.

"It's bad news for Konoha, if we don't do something quickly it will destroy the whole city!" Lee said hastily, Gai looked down seeing that 2 blocks were already up in burning rubble, no survivors.

"Alright, come on." Gai jumped into the drivers seat of his car while Lee pushed Iruka and Kakashi towards the back seat.

"What is this thing?" Iruka asked as he was abruptly pushed into the back seat while Shikamaru sat between him and Kakashi. Lee of course took the front seat next to Gai.

"I'll explain on the way." Shikamaru said, pulling the seat buckles over the confused two just as Gai pulled off getting a startled yell from Iruka. Gai drove over the edge being the only available exit and landing smoothly in to the burning field below and speeding through the inflamed streets fast enough to blow the flames out of their path.

Shikamaru started telling Iruka and Kakashi about what they would need to know at this moment while Gai pulled out his gun from the holster under his shirt. He pulled up next to the demon, firing a few shots that struck it in the jaw and in-between the eyes. "Huh? It didn't work?"

"That's not a normal fox, Move!" Lee shouted, causing Gai to drive forward again as Kyuubi swung it's strong tails at them. But it missed and slammed them into the ground creating a small earthquake and causing the road to buckle up in front of them. Gai easily avoided the protruding concrete, going a little faster when he saw a wave of fire propagating outward from Kyuubi.

The sounds of sirens and helicopters could be heard approaching. "What's that?" Kakashi asked

Shikamaru pointed upward, "Those are News Helicopters-" He pointed to and approaching police car and ambulance. "I'll explain that later."

Three or so Police cars stopped at the end of the street with the ambulance behind it. Gai drove past the line and stopped behind it also. Before he could even get out and warn the officers of the Demon's true power Kyuubi had pounced on to the car in the center. With claws baring it slashed through the roof of the car with ease.

The officer inside drew his 9mm and started firing, having a clear shot at it's head and torso the man fired rapidly but the bullets didn't seem to have any effect. Kyubi roared and slammed it's long tails in to the car, striking a few choice parts and causing it to explode.

"What is that thing!" Gai asked fearfully, putting the car in reverse and backing up as the orange fox jumped out of the flames unsaved. With it's tails wiping it swatted away the other two cars easily, sending them flying through the buildings next to them.

"Well, what do we do now?" Iruka asked, gripping anything he could in the foreign machine.

"I'm going to need a bigger weapon and some back up." Gai said, pulling out a cell phone and hitting the first number on the speed dial. "Hello…It's Gai…I'm sure your seeing this on the news so get down here now…No, regular guns wont work I've tried….Just hurry." Gai put the phone back into his pocket and looked back. They weren't being perused so that was good.

Gai stopped the car and looked back, "So you guys have anyway to stop this thing, I assume it came with you."

"We have to bring it back with us. " Kakashi said, "That's not happening anytime soon."

"You can't be serous."

The 5 of them looked back to see Kakashi, the future one knelling on the trunk of Gai's car with a large assault rifle and his bomb squad suit on. It was a large green and black body suit that was made to protect the user from explosions and impact. And with it's high and wide collar, nothing of Kakashi's face could be seen except his eyes. Who knew what other weapons he had hidden in it.

"Kakashi?" Gai looked around to see if anyone had arrived yet, just him. "What are you doing here."

"That thing blew up my house, who are you?" Kakashi asked to his other self.

"Take a guess."

"I'd say me."

The past Kakashi shrugged, "We have the same name, why not."

The future Kakashi jumped off the car, and landed near the driver side next to Gai. "What's with this fox?"

Gai got out of the car along with everyone else. "I don't know but it's not normal, standard issues don't work." Gai was referring to his gun.

There was a loud roar as Kyubi came right at Kakashi in an orange blur of speed, about to pounce when the man opened fire. Bullet after bullet from the high powered gun struck the beast with no effect, Kakashi realized it only when the demon was a few inches from him.

The past Kakashi jumped over the demon, careful of it's tails as he tossed a kunai with an explosive tag around it into the demon's back. The Future Kakashi fell to the ground and rolled out of the way just as the fox landed and stumbled forward a few steps away from the car before the tag detonated. Engulfing all of them in a cloud of smoke and raining concrete.

"Not bad." The future Kakashi said. "Make's me wonder how good you really are.

"Your about to get your chance to find out." Iruka said. "Move, It's not dead."

Both Kakashi's and Gai dived out of the way as Kyubi came barreling out of the smoke blindly. Narrowly missing all of them, some coming closer to it then others.

"Shadow Bind No Jutsu!" Shikamaru did the hand seals, sending his shadow shooting forward and connecting with the Nine-Tail's. "Lee." Lee nodded and wrapped his arms around Shikamaru's waist. He never intended to hold the jutsu knowing it would be impossible, just to draw it's attention.

The Jutsu was instantly broken and the Nine-Tails whipped it's tails toward them. Lee jumped back with Shikamaru in his arms, watching the long tails rip through Gai's car and cause it to explode.

Iruka and the past Kakashi jumped out of the way, Gai wasn't in range and the future Kakashi emerged from the smoke with a grenade in his hand and the pin pulled. "My Car!" Gai shouted angrily as he ran out of the rang of a weapon considerably more powerful then an explosive tag.

Kyuubi growled, unable to keep up with everything happening around it. The demon snapped at the nearest person, turning towards Kakashi with bared fangs. Kakashi easily tossed the grenade into it's mouth and jumped backwards, not able to jump as high or as far as the past Kakashi but it was effective.

The Grenade exploded, taking half the street with it.

"If it wasn't dead before, it is now." Gai sighed, just as a S.W.A.T team truck pulled up behind them.

"No way." The future Kakashi said with widened eyes "It's…still alive!" He said with surprise as the demon emerged from the smoke extremely pissed off.

"Thing won't go down easy." Iruka said, thrusting his hands forward "Retsu ha geki!" A burst of razor shape wind surrounded the fox but with a roar it dispelled the winds.

The 5 of them looked back as a S.W.A.T team emerged from the truck, 6 or so of them armed with M41A riffles. Taking position in-between those of them already there, the men opened fire on Kyuubi. The fox roared again, wiping it's tail at nothing in particular this time and sending a wall of wind at them.

All of them were caught up with in the wind's wake, being tossed backwards and landing hard about 30 feet away. One way or another each of them scrambled to move as the fox tried to pounce on them. Gai, both Kakashis, Lee and Shikamaru all watched as the Team made the mistake of underestimating the demon and rushing it once.

Both Kakashi's pulled Iruka toward the armored truck. "What about them?" Iruka asked as he was pushed in the back and Gai, the best driver, took the wheel.

"It's too late for them, their dead." Future Kakashi said, pulling a grenade from the uniform and tossing it back just as the other Kakashi tossed out a Kunai with two explosive tags attached. Future Kakashi used precision shooting to fire a single shot from his riffle into the grenade and closed the doors. Erupting the grenade and the tags and giving an adequate cover for them to get a safe distance away.


	22. Chapter 22: Water Finale

Chapter 22: Water Finale

This is it, the last chapter in this story, but don't worry, I have a sequel (Already posted) named Future Tense that is a continuation of this story. And if your wondering, it's going to be set in the future (There was no way in hell I was going to let go of a story premise this good). So don't worry, I have big plans for Sasuke, Naruto and Konohamaru. Heh heh.

The way by Fastball

The rain had reason to torrential proportions in less then 2 minutes after the Nine-Tails had been knocked out by Iruka, It was a concern if the sewers could hold all of the water, or could the water drain fast enough because the water was already up to the curb even with the sewers draining.

"Has the situation been resolved?" Sarutobi asked.

"Yes sir, the situation is under control." Kabuto said, being the president's direct secretary and sometimes advisor, it was his job to report these types of things.

"What was it exactly that caused all of this?"

"It was…a fox."

"Fox?" Sarutobi raised an eyebrow "Are you saying a fox caused 100s of thousands of dollars of damages?"

Kabuto nodded "Believe it or not that's what's what happened."

_**They made up their minds  
And they started packing **_

"How is that possible?"

He shrugged "I'm not sure exactly, every channels playing what happened in loop."

Sarutobi decided to leave this subject for another time, they had bigger problems to worry about, the storm for one. The first thing that came to his mind was Konohamaru, he had no doubt that the boy left home after that conversation they had. But he was probably back by now, Konohamaru knew it was dangerous to be out in this weather.

Sarutobi pressed the speaker button on his phone, then hit the second number on speed dial. "Ebisu." Sarutobi didn't get an answer, but he didn't need one, with in 30 seconds Ebisu walked into the room.

"Yes Mr. President?" He asked.

"Is Konohamaru here?"

Ebisu adjusted his sunglasses, a habit he did when he knew something bad was about to be realized "No."

Sarutobi instantly became worried, but before he could say what everyone knew he was about to say, Kabuto started acting strangely. "Oh, excuse me. I have to make a phone call…Storm preparations and things of that nature…Oh, and I also have to check on my wife." Kabuto quickly walked out of the room…even though they knew he didn't have a wife.

_**They left before the sun came up that day  
An exit to eternal summer slacking **_

They weren't focused on that though "Go find him, quickly."

Ebisu nodded abruptly and rushed out of the room.

"Heh heh, by the time Ebisu gets here we'll be long gone." Naruto said with a grin.

"Come on dobe, lets go." Sasuke called from the door.

"Alright here I come." Naruto called back from the bed room. Konohamaru was already in the car, Sasuke was on his way down, and Naruto didn't know exactly why he was still here.

He looked around his bedroom, knowing he was about to leave and trying to decide what to take with him. It couldn't be a lot and he had to be quick about it. But just looking at this place and knowing he was leavening brought up so many memories.

After another bad day at school, Naruto found himself walking angrily in to his bed room. It had been 2 months since Sasuke had started staying with him. It was…interesting, they hadn't killed each other yet and after each argument everything was if it never happened. So all in all….Naruto found himself getting used to it and actually liking his life right now.

_**But where were they going Without ever knowing the way?  
They drank up the wine **_

But not today.

Naruto walked over to his bed and let himself fall face first into the soft sheets. Sasuke walked in after him, tossing his book bag aside and sitting on the bed. "What's with you dead-last?"

"Nothing, just leave me the hell alone." Naruto said with his face still planted in the bed.

Sasuke raised an eyebrow, he never that that bad of a response initially, something must have been wrong. 'Mmmm." Sasuke folded his arms and looked towards the other boy, that small outburst made him realize that he was beginning to know Naruto well enough to read his reactions.

_**And they got to talking  
They now had more important things to say **_

Which would make sense, they spent 90 of their time together. Which gave Sasuke an amusing thought, one amusing enough to make him laugh out loud. That sound made Naruto turn enough to look at him through the corner of his eye. "What's so funny?"

Sasuke really didn't feel like saying something that could instigate an augment right now, he never did when Naruto was in a bad mood. "I was just thinking…since were always together most of the time. And how everyone is always trying to be _my friend_…"

"And how everyone hates me-" Naruto said "And that really stupid look they get on there face when they see us together." When he thought about it, Naruto couldn't help but laugh.

"Exactly." Sasuke said, shaking his head. Neither of them never realized how funny it was, they'd have to pay more attention next time.

Naruto turned his head completely, looking at the wall. "You know, I want to see it again."

"What?"

_**And when the car broke down They started walking  
Where were they going without ever knowing the way?**_

"That look."

Sasuke got up, "Let's go then."

"Huh? Really?" Naruto sat up.

"Yeah, Let's go."

"Well…." Naruto heard his stomach growl. "I am kinda hungry."

"Your always hungry." Sasuke smirked.

"No I'm not."

_**Anyone could see The road that they walk on is paved in gold  
And It's always summer, they'll never get cold **_

"Yes you are." Sasuke said, taping Naruto's stomach "It's like a pit, I've never seen anything like it. I think I could fit in there."

"Keep tapping and you'll find out."

"Heh heh." Naruto smirked and rubbed his head, finding himself blushing at all of the memories he had of this bedroom. He wouldn't mind having more of them here…"Maybe later."

Naruto decided to take nothing and walked out of his room, closing the door behind him. "…" He stopped in the small corridor separating the Bedroom, the bathroom and the kitchen. Even this place brought back memories.

Sasuke sighed and lent against the wall with laptop in hand, letting himself slide down into a sitting position. It had been 2 years since he had been staying here, not one day was he here with out Naruto…until today. The first day of 2 weeks Naruto would be gone. He was out on an testing mission, a final for school, his last test of the year.

_**They'll Never get hungry  
They'll never get old and gray **_

If he past this he'd finally be a solder, and Naruto had been extremely excited about it. Sasuke passed this test a half a year ago for his Mid-term. Naruto took the test them but due to circumstances beyond his control…yeah, he didn't pass. But this time he had Iruka for a teacher so they could be sure it would be fair this time.

Sasuke promised him they'd celebrate when he passed, but that was 2 weeks away. It seemed like nothing yesterday when he left, but today he missed the loud, hyperactive Uzumaki Naruto. A lot.

Sasuke sat his laptop on his lap and turned it on.

Naruto, where are you, are you ok? How's it going?

;;Sasuke

_**You can see their shadows Wandering off somewhere  
They won't make it home **_

Sasuke sent the message with some hope that he would get it today and have time to reply, he was surprised when Naruto sent him another message 30 seconds later.

Naruto: I'm ok, Iruka's rrrreallyyyyy tough but I'm doing fine.

Sasuke: Good.

Naruto:

Sasuke: What?

Naruto: I really miss you.

Sasuke:

Sasuke: Me too.

Naruto: )

Sasuke: Heh.

Naruto: Heh Heh.

_**But they really don't care  
They wanted the highway **_

Sasuke:

Naruto: What is it?

Sasuke: I-

Naruto: Oh crap, looks like my break is over. Sorry, I have to go…Damn and we were just getting started.

Sasuke: Good look.

Naruto: Thanks.

Sasuke: We're still going to celebrate when you get back, so you better pass dobe.

Naruto: Yeah alright.

"Hmmm….." Naruto smiled, it seemed like most of the good things in his life happened here. With a shrug Naruto walked down the hall, going past the Bathroom on his way. He couldn't help but stop and look inside, his eyes drawn immediately to the shower with a devilish grin.

_**They're happy there today , today  
The children woke up **_

With a sigh Naruto reached into the shower and turned on the water, carefully holding out his arm with each adjustment of the water to get it to the perfect temperature. Then he pulled back, lifting his orange shirt over his head and tossing it aside. Then pulling down his black pants and kicking them over by his shirt.

With a soft sigh he eased himself out of boxers, then stepped into the warm water of the shower. After trudging through the snow of Konoha's winter, snow that was a foot deep, Naruto felt like a complete idiot right now. He walked all the way to school by himself, only to find it was closed for a snow day and rightfully so.

He just wished someone would have told him…which brought of the question of where was Sasuke? After 4 years of living with the stoic boy he wondered why Sasuke wasn't there when he woke up, Didn't matter right now. Naruto only focused on taking that quick shower which he was tempted to stay in until the hot water ran out. But he managed to resist the temptation and got out, reaching for a towel on the rack and began padding himself dry.

Running the towel through his hair, Naruto walked out of the bathroom into his bedroom.

"Hi Naruto."

"Whaaaaa!" Naruto jumped when he saw Konohamaru standing next to his bed looking at him. "What are you doing here?"

_**And they couldn't find 'em  
They Left before the sun came up that day **_

"Looking for something I left yesterday." He said plainly, "Calm down, not like I never seen you naked before."

"You shouldn't have saw me those times." Naruto said, going through his drawers for something dry to wear. He quickly found something suitable.

"Got it." Konohamaru said, shoving the lost item into his pocket. "Hey Naruto, what's that mark on-"

"Don't ask, I'm not going to tell you." Naruto said, the same thing he always said when Konohamaru asked that question. The boy just shrugged and walked outside, leaving Naruto to get dressed.

He quickly finished getting dressed, making sure he grabbed his orange coat before going out side. "Where the hell did Sasuke go?" Naruto said softly, looking around the snowy- "Uufh." Naruto was struck with a snowball the size of his head in his back.

He quickly turned around to see Konohamaru…with his head buried in the snow and Sasuke a few feet away with his back turned apparently looking at something else. 'You can't fool me.' Naruto said to himself, grinning sheepishly while he knelt down and began rolling up a snowball. "Hey Sasuke!"

_**They just drove off  
And left it all behind 'em**_

Sasuke turned around, only to be hit in the face by a snowball, "What are you doing dobe?" Sasuke asked annoyedly, wiping the snow from his face and shaking it out of his hair. He zipped up the black coat he was wearing and glared at Naruto, who was pointing at him and laughing.

Only to be pelted with another large snowball that knocked him over. Konohamaru started laughing at him, making it apparent that he was the one that threw the snowball in the first place. Naruto reached back, clinching a mass of snow and tossing it at Konohamaru, the boy ducked, watching it fly over his head and hit Sasuke in the chest

"Uh…" Naruto climbed to his feet, watching Konohamaru laugh harder and Sasuke look madder. "Sorry-" Before he could finish his sentence he got a mouth full snow this time he was sure was thrown by Sasuke.

Naruto spit out the snow angrily, quickly scooping two snow balls with both hands and throwing them at Konohamaru and Sasuke. Konohamaru was hit in the chest but Sasuke dodged it.

Konohamaru and Sasuke glanced over at each other and nodded. Before Naruto could notice it, both Sasuke and Konohamaru started throwing a furry of Snowballs at Naruto. "Hey-Ugh-No fair!" Naruto ran behind at tree, watching the balls fly past him.

_**But Where were they going Without ever knowing the way?  
Anyone could see The road that they walk on is paved in gold **_

Naruto jumped out from behind the tree, tossing a snow ball at Sasuke and another one at Konohamaru, giving himself enough time to get closer, close enough to rush Sasuke send both of them tumbling to the ground. Sasuke looked up at him "No fair."

With a soft sigh Naruto walked out of the hallway in to the kitchen, "…" He walked immediately to the refrigerator, looking around inside not really to take anything, just to look at, like everything else Naruto's food was separate from Sasuke. On the left side was mostly Ramen, clearly Naruto's.

On the right was a more balanced assortment, mostly healthy food. This was obviously Sasuke's side, there was even a small part in the middle where Konohamaru put some things. Mostly junk food since he didn't get much of it…any of it at all at home.

5 years, 5 whole years today. Sasuke just barely thought about that as he woke up at 9 in the morning and was unable to fall asleep again. He rolled over in the bed and glanced at Naruto sleeping beside him, though he never admit it he really loved him. It didn't take him 5 years to realize that, or the fact that every year life with him seemed to get better and better.

_**And It's always summer, they'll never get cold  
They'll Never get hungry **_

Sasuke pulled the covers off of him and got out of bed, feeling a small chill in the air since he was completely naked. Which was the only reason Sasuke reached for his pants on the floor. With a small yawn he walked out of the bed room, down the hall into the kitchen.

"Huh?" There was a knock on the door, Sasuke shrugged and walked across the kitchen and opened it. He found Konohamaru and Iruka standing on the other side

"Hi Sasuke." Konohamaru said cheerfully, walking into the familiar room.

"Hello." Iruka said with his usual friendly tone.

_**They'll never get old and gray  
You can see their shadows Wandering off somewhere **_

"What are you two doing here?" Sasuke closed the door behind them.

"Did you pass?" Konohamaru asked anxiously.

Sasuke looked at them, Konohamaru was clearly referring to his final test in police academy. It usually took two years to complete but Sasuke got to the end of the course in little under a year. He nodded.

"That's great." Konohamaru said with a large smile, "And you finished really early, Sasuke your amazing!"

_**They Won't make it home  
But they really don't care **_

"Come on, Let's go celebrate." Iruka said, which was clearly the reason he came all the way over here. Sasuke couldn't help but think what a nice guy he was, not the type of person that seemed suited to be in the air force, let alone the top pilot in his class. "Where's Naruto?"

"Asleep." Sasuke said. Naruto never really got up early on the weekends, and today was Saturday.

"Wake him up, I'm sure he wont want to miss this." Iruka said with a smile. Sasuke began wondering what he had planed, Iruka wasn't the type of person to do a half job, when he said he was going to celebrate he no doubt had something special planned.

Naruto closed the refrigerator, deciding to leave before he had any more flashbacks. He walked to the open door wondering how Sasuke felt about Iruka, he'd done a lot for both of them. He decided he'd just have to ask him, stopping to take one last look back. He never realized how much he loved this place, it actually made him a little sad to leave. This place. It was like his isolation from the world, everything good that ever happened to him happened here.

_**They wanted the highway  
They're happy there today , today **_

He really did love this place.

Naruto sighed, he decided to leave everything here, just to make sure no matter what happened he'd come back. "I hope the storm doesn't mess this place up." He said to himself, turning off the light and closing the door.

'Damnit! Where is Konohamaru!' Ebisu said to himself, this was the only time he never got a trace of him. Finally he came to the very last place he could be, Ebisu walked into Naruto's home, only to find it empty.

_**Anyone could see The road that they walk on is paved in gold  
And It's always summer, they'll never get cold **_

"Heh heh." Konohamaru laughed as he looked back at the city from the rearview window. He could hardly see it from the rain, considering that they were leaving Konoha from the east and the storm was coming from the north.

Konohamaru lent forward, looking over at Naruto in the front seat with his hands resting behind his head. And at Sasuke who was driving.

_**They'll Never get hungry  
They'll never get old and gray **_

The clouds started to become more scattered letting through rays of sun on the wet road. "I can't believe we actually made it. My grandfather is going to be really mad when I get back." Konohamaru said.

_**You can see their shadows Wandering off somewhere  
They Won't make it home **_

"I almost feel sorry for Ebisu…almost." Naruto smirked and looked out the window at the hills outside of the city.

Sasuke looked around him, there was absolutely no traffic on the road, and the rain had stopped completely. He flipped and switch, lowering the top on the black car and letting the wind in. "I wonder how fast this thing can really go."

Naruto looked over at him, "I sooo have to drive this thing."

Sasuke smirked, shifting gears and accelerating on the open road.

_**But they really don't care  
They wanted the highway  
They're happy there today , today**_

Part 1 Finished. Go to my profile and red the second part of Naruto water, Future tense.

Thanks to everyone who reviewed, keep doing it, authors really do live off of reviews.


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